00:00It's all smiles here at Chilmington Green after months of campaigning to bring public transport
00:05to this secondary school. Over the last month we've covered the concerns and fears of parents here
00:12whose children were forced to walk along unlit pathways and near busy roads to get to school
00:19from Ashford. Following our coverage stagecoach have announced they will run a twice daily service
00:25from the Singleton suburb. And now we've got a safe way of getting our children to school
00:30especially with September coming with the winter months and yeah couldn't be happier it's brilliant
00:35news. Yeah just a serious just felt disbelief initially and but absolutely overjoyed to the
00:42announcement. It just gives them a bit of independence back as well for the kids because
00:45they should be able to make their own way to and from school. The service is being operated by
00:50stagecoach without any financial support from Kent County Council. The authority had previously said
00:57there was a safe and viable route from Ashford to the isolated school and that its safety had even
01:05been assessed twice. Once the parents work out they can put their kids on a safe bus route to school
01:09each day a lot of the traffic that comes up and down this link road will start to decrease and
01:15people will get on green and you know and sensible transport to get their kids to school and that's
01:20what we want. We don't want secondary school kids being dropped at school we want them getting there
01:25themselves safely and getting on a bus and the reason we did this was because the walking route was not
01:29safe. Stagecoach says it's excited to step in and run a much sought after service and with hundreds of
01:37pupils at the school campaigners say demand will only grow in the coming years.
01:45Oddie Leader at Chilmington Green
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