PARENTS in Benson have convinced county councillors to let their children catch the bus to school after being told they would have to cross a main road where one of their schoolmates was killed.

Last year, Oxfordshire County Council decided not to provide buses for children starting at Wallingford School in September if they lived within three miles of the site.

Under the new rules, eight children from Benson would have been forced to walk to the secondary school, crossing the A4074, when other children in the village who lived just the other side of the county’s zone were eligible for the bus.

Seventeen-year-old Abi Haythorne, from RAF Benson, died in an accident on the busy main road in 2007.

This week, the authority reversed the decision following pressure from parents and community leaders.

Mother-of-two Elizabeth Lemaire, of The Moorlands, Benson, said her 11-year-old daughter Ella would have been affected when she starts at the school in September.

She said: “The road is very fast with very heavy traffic. Children would have had to cross at Preston Crowmarsh island where a teenage girl was killed. Everyone in the village thought it was terrible and not safe.

“People have been horrified that the county council could say that the road was safe for our children to cross. I’m very pleased with the decision and relieved.

"I think it’s the best they could have done, because they would have looked very bad if they had tried to insist it was safe.

“I’m not sure anyone would expect their children to walk that far to school these days.”

Mother-of-two Lisa Caddick, 38, of Church Close, Benson, said: “They have said this entitlement to free transport will remain until their concern over the road is alleviated. I would have driven my daughter, or they would have gone on public transport. I wouldn’t cross that road in rush hour, it’s dangerous.”

Scout leaders, headteachers, Benson Parish Council, local MP John Howell and Benson county councillor Tony Crabbe were among those supporting the campaign.

Mr Crabbe said: “I’m delighted with the result, it is a commonsense outcome.”

Mr Howell added: “It was a nonsense to interpret the rules in a way which splits one end of the village from another.”

Wyll Willis, headteacher of Wallingford School, said: “The school is delighted for everyone concerned. The original decision placed a number of young people at very real risk of harm for no good reason we could discern.

“The county council is to be commended for having the integrity and good grace to revisit the issue and change its mind.”