North Lanarkshire Council approves £1m upgrade to school walking routes

North Lanarkshire Council has approved more than £1m of investment to improve walking routes for school pupils.

It follows strong criticism from parents over the safety, condition and length of routes deemed suitable by the council.

Hundreds of children were affected when the free school bus eligibility threshold was raised from two to three miles, leaving some pupils walking more than an hour to get to school.

Among them is 13-year-old Jacob Shaw.

His mother, Sarah Shaw, said: “Between myself, my husband, my sister, and friends, we are using flexi time, annual leave, and every bit of support we can to arrange lift shares.”

Jacob, who attends Cumbernauld Academy, lives just under three miles from the school. His mother described the walk as “steep and treacherous,” pointing to only one pedestrian crossing along 16 road crossings, damaged footpaths, poor lighting and sections through secluded woodland.

Following a review, the council has signed off a £1.05m project to improve 46 routes. The plans include £860,000 for new lighting, £141,000 for footpath upgrades, and £54,000 for widening works.

But the work is not expected to be finished until August 2026.

Emma Ross, whose 12-year-old son Nathan also walks just under three miles to Cumbernauld Academy, said bus services must be urgently reinstated.

“The routes are still not currently safe, they are badly maintained and overgrown.

“Until these issues are properly addressed, buses should be reinstated to get our children safely to and from school,” she said.

A spokesperson for North Lanarkshire Council said: “The council agreed to establish a working group to examine improvements that could be made when assessing the acceptability of school walking routes.

“Our enhanced walking route assessment process, along with a recommendation to allocate one-off expenditure of around £1m, will ensure that all walking routes comply with the new process, including factors such as lighting, footpath quality and widening.

“The improvements will be formally implemented by August 2026 for the start of the 2026/27 academic year.

“The changes to school transport qualifying distance criteria saves £1.9m annually and brings North Lanarkshire Council in line with the majority of the 32 local authorities in Scotland, who already have the same qualifying criteria in place, as set by the Scottish Government.”