A ROUTE to school has been declared safe by council officials - three months after a boy was knocked off his bike.

Gloucestershire County Council said a school route from Berkeley Heath to the Vale of Berkeley College in Wanswell is not dangerous for teenagers to walk.

This decision comes after 12-year-old Oscar Pollard, of Berkeley Heath, suffered a fractured collarbone last September when he was knocked off his bike while riding to school along the route.

Emma Allison, Oscar's mum, said: "They have said the road is safe and it is perfectly acceptable to walk down the grass verge, but I don't see how.

"The only thing they did say is Oscar could have a bus pass but that we have to pay for it.

"I just don't want him walking that route. That is why we put him on his bike because we thought he would be safer and more visible than just walking along the road, but that didn't work."

The county council completed a safety assessment of the route, which takes children along the Berkeley bypass, last autumn in response to Oscar's accident.

So worried is Mrs Allison about her son's safety she is now paying £130 a term for a bus pass, which she cannot get free of charge because the Vale of Berkeley College is less than three miles from her home.

"We can't drive Oscar to school because of getting our other children to school and there is no way he is walking that route," said Mrs Allison.

Geoff Black, head of access and support services at Gloucestershire County Council, said: "The county council spends £11million each year transporting 9,000 plus pupils to school, around 1,200 of these because their route to school is judged unsafe.

"Potentially unsafe routes are assessed by trained staff, using standard guidelines developed over many years and applied consistently and fairly across the county.

"In this case, the assessment of a route from Berkeley Heath to Berkeley Vale School has been done twice over a period of two months and, using our standard criteria, has been found to be one which a secondary age child, accompanied as necessary, can walk with reasonable safety."