PRINCIPAL’S PLEA TO HELP ‘ABANDONED’ CHILDREN

Norman Meharry said while he was delighted to welcome the children and their parents, he was shocked there would be no bus for the youngsters leaving many of them to walk along busy and dangerous roads.

Mr Meharry said he felt so strongly that he was willing to help organise a bus and even got a quote of £5,500 per year but was told by the SEELB that transport would not be provided to children living less than two miles away from the school.

The parents have begun a campaign to get the decision reversed.

Mr Meharry described it as an awful situation and said it appeared young children and their parents had been left to ‘fend for themselves’.

“I feel very concerned about this,” he said. “They have simply been abandoned. I got a quote because I was willing to provide the bus myself so I know they can come to the school safely. I just cannot understand it. Surely some of the money - which is about £400,000 - that they are saving by closing the school can provide transport. The money should follow the children.

“They have taken the school away and now they have left young children to fend for themselves. It is as simple as that. It is a dreadful situation for these children and their parents and it is not of their making. It’s not their fault they are without a school.

“This appears to be a total injustice to the children of Milltown.”

Mr Meharry met with a senior official of the SEELB and was told that although he could not use the LMS (Local Management of School) funds, if there were other funds they could be used to pay for transport.

Mr Meharry said families without their own transport would have little option but to cross busy main roads no less than five times each way.

“Their daily route would be along the McKinstry Road and the Belfast-Lisburn main A2 where there are large trucks, some which are 40 tonners, moving at speeds in excess of 30mph” he said.

“Worse still, the main road off the estate has no pavement on the estate side for nearly 200 metres.

“This forces parents with children and prams onto the narrow, windy but busy Derriaghy Road or to cross it twice on a blind corner and on the hidden side of a dangerous hill to access safe passage.

“Where this has happened in other communities, the authorities have provided transport.

“Earlier this year the Education Minister, after agreeing to the closing of their school, agreed that in principle, the Derriaghy children should have an arrangement made to help them access other schools.

“However the South Eastern Education Board is applying the usual criteria to an unusual situation and saying that the children do not live more than the statutory two miles from a school that can take them.

“It is as if the children have brought this upon themselves and so must suffer the consequences. Will it take the death or serious injury of a child going to school before the authorities see sense?”

Last week the SEELB said: “The SEELB is required to provide transport assistance in accordance with DE Circular 1996/41 (updated 2009) which directs that Transport assistance will not normally be provided for pupils who reside under two miles to their nearest suitable category of primary school.

“For those eligible pupils, a Board will provide whatever form of transport assistance it deems appropriate, however for all other pupils it is a matter for parents to determine how their children get to school and any cost and safety implications resultant from this decision.”

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