Letter to Cllr Jonathan Hulley: Secondary School Transport

Families across Lightwater and Surrey Heath are facing growing difficulties with secondary school admissions and school transport, with many children expected to walk unsafe routes to school. Parents are rightly concerned that current transport rules prioritise distance on paper over safety in reality.

Lightwater is surrounded by fast, heavily trafficked roads, with poor lighting, limited pavements, and isolated walking routes. Yet under Surrey County Council’s current three-mile transport policy, many children are denied support and left with no safe or practical alternative to walking or being driven to school. Confusion over how the “nearest school” is defined has only added to the problem, leaving families misled and penalised through no fault of their own.

I am calling for:

• Clear provision for children who live just under the three-mile threshold but are expected to walk along hazardous or poorly lit routes.
• An urgent review of how the “nearest school” is defined, to ensure families are not misled by conflicting rules across council services.
• A stronger focus on real-world safety when assessing school transport, including traffic speed, lighting, isolation, and seasonal conditions.
• Council officers and decision-makers to walk the routes themselves as part of any formal review, to properly understand the risks pupils face.

Children’s safety should never be determined by a technicality or a measurement taken “as the crow flies”. I will continue pressing Surrey County Council to put safety, clarity, and fairness at the heart of school transport policy for families in Lightwater and across Surrey Heath.

Please see the letter attached below.