Fight over path (From Barry And District News)

Fight over path

A SCHOOL'S head teacher and governors are at loggerheads with the council over a path they say will become "a dangerous rat-run" which will compromise children's safety.

But the council say the path is in fact the "safest option" and will start work on it shortly.

Chair of Governors at Barry Comprehensive School, Matthew Griffiths, said: "I can't think of an occasion when governors have felt so disillusioned by the Vale council's pretensions to partnership.

"The council failed to consult the governors and presented the head and ourselves with a'fait accompli'."

And headteacher David Swallow added: "We have tried to get the council to respond to our concerns. However, we have not had answers to our questions about children's safety.

"We have severe misgivings about the risk assessment and crime prevention advice on which council officers rely."

But the council's Director of Learning and Development, Bryan Jeffreys, said the council has acted "in the interests of pupil safety."

He said: "The council has taken the advice of both the police and its own health and safety officers in establishing the route for the new path between Barry Comprehensive School and the Cwm Talwg estate."

Mr Swallow and the governors' main concern is that the path will be fenced on both sides, with entry at Elan Close and opposite Tesco.

Governors' chairman Mr Griffiths said: "Despite assurances, it is the school's view that the path will be a dangerous, 300-metre rat run that is poorly overlooked.

"Because it will be fenced on both sides, we think that a vulnerable child or adult will not be able to escape easily if bullied or threatened."

He said the school will be writing to parents about the path after the half-term break.

He added that governors believe the cost of the scheme - said to be in the order of 45,000 - cannot be justified at a time when teachers' jobs in Vale schools are under threat.

* The path will run around a playing field adjacent to the woodland at Cwm Talwg. Pupils cross the field on their way to and from school, rather then use the narrow pavement along Port Road West.

The field provides access to the Cwm Talwg estate and the west of the town.

Access to the school will run along the woodland boundary that backs on to Brenig Close and then parallel with the hedge to Port Road.

The path will be fenced on both sides.