PARENTS whose children lost their free school transport still don’t know when an appeal will be determined more than a week after the new term started.

They are now having to walk 55 minutes each way to and from school with toddlers while they say the bus with empty seats passes them.

Mum of three Jenny Sullivan said she has had to walk her two youngest children from their home in St Arvans the near two miles each way to the Dell Primary in Chepstow.

Her oldest child also has to walk the route, along a 50 mile per hour road and a shared cycle path, to secondary school.

Last term the family qualified for free transport but that was withdrawn when the new school year started in September as Monmouthshire County Council changed the qualifying distance from 1.5 miles to two miles for primary school children and from two to three miles for those in secondary schools.

Ms Sullivan said she is currently either driving or, when possible, walking her two youngest , aged 10 and seven, to school but said: “It is just physically impossible for young children to walk that distance twice a day, everyday and it is also tiring for them when they arrive at school.”

The 42-year-old said she is also concerned about the route that her 13-year-old also takes to school: “It’s not really safe. It’s a 50mph road and a shared cycle path. Emissions are also a worry as they are being more exposed to that if they are having to walk it every day.”

Other parents and families are also impacted and Ms Sullivan said at least one parent has to make the near four mile round trip, twice a day, with a child who is too young to attend school.

She said: “One little child has just started reception, they’ve just turned four, and their parent also has a toddler who has to walk with them and walk back from school as well.”

As St Arvans is on the edge of the new qualifying distances some families are still entitled to free transport and Ms Sullivan said: “Children cannot understand why their friends living in the next street within the same village still have a bus space when they do not. The policy has split the village in half.”

Monmouthshire council said it changed its home to school transport policy, bringing it into line with the Welsh Government’s statutory qualifying distances, to save £700,000 but wouldn’t require children to walk where no safe route exists.

Parents in St Arvans say the council has told them it has conducted a risk assessment and considers the route to be safe and are now waiting an independent assessment as part of the appeal process.

Ms Sullivan said she is waiting for the outcome of the appeal but as it wasn’t determined before the start of the school year has caused complications as her employer has been flexible with allowing her to collect her children but said she could have to consider after school childcare which would cost around £25 a day for two children.

She has also disputed the council will achieve its planned cost savings as she said the school bus still has to travel through the village, though it now has a large number of empty seats.

Ms Sullivan said parents have been offered transport but that would cost £540 a year, per child and she understands payment is required up front.

Monmouthshire County Council was contacted for comment.