School blocking footpath users

COMMUNITY engagement and charitable works feature large in most schools’ lists of aims and objectives, particularly so in the case of faith schools.

So imagine the surprise of some of the residents of Llandaff when they received a letter from the governors of the Llandaff Church in Wales Primary School containing the following sentences.

“Following discussion... the Governing Body has confirmed the decision of 20th June 2018 to terminate the arrangement by which residents can access the school site... To clarify, the implementation of the Governing Body’s decision will be from today, Friday, 7th December 2018.”

They do offer a certain limited sympathy for the residents affected by this decision. “We do recognise that a small number of residents may face challenges to their ability to access Llandaff High Street or the Cathedral but hope that these can be overcome quickly.” A loose translation of this last sentence could be “sorry mate/dear, not our problem”

There are 160 fob holders affected who live both sides of Cardiff Road, so it is not only those who wish to access the High Street from the Insole Estate but also the increasing number, increasing because of the attraction of the facilities now offered by Insole Court, of, usually elderly, residents of the village itself wanting to access the Court, by a safer and shorter route than either Ely or Fairwater Road.

The school authorities’ apparent ignorance of this footpath’s history makes it necessary to retell the sorry tale. The school was first built on a greenfield site in the 1960s. Prior to this there was a much used footpath across the field affording local residents quick and safe access to the village. Thought was given to applying to have the path registered as a right of way, but on receipt of the promise of the Dean at the time that locals would always have access through the school grounds this intention was shelved.

Unfortunately we have been here before, when the path through the school was closed to the public, for the same specious, illogical reasons, from 1996 to 2004. Eventually a compromise was reached between the school authorities and the residents. A fob, rented for a year, part of a system under the control of the school and only operational during out of school hours, ie evenings, weekends and holidays, when the school is not in session and the pupils are not on campus, allowed access by opening the entrance gates, one situated off the Cardiff Road and the other at the end of Hendre Close.

This fob scheme has operated without major mishap since 2004, 14 years. Now the school authorities want to demonstrate how well they implement their community engagement and charitable philosophies by unilaterally, without consultation, denying their neighbours, many of them elderly, a safe and quick route to necessary services, surgery, pharmacy, at the beginning of the season of goodwill and in the middle of winter.

The tightening up of security is an illusion; access is only asked for times when the children are not in school. When you build fences and lock gates, you lock out your wellintentioned friends but you do not keep out those bent on mischief. Brenda and John Isaacs Llandaff, Cardiff