WORRIED parents have lost their fight to get transport for their children who have to walk along narrow country lanes with no footpaths to get to school.

The parents in the village of Wombleton, near Helmsley, have been told by the North Yorkshire County Council that it would cost £15,000 a year to bus the 17 children from the village to Ryedale School, at Nawton.

Sue Sharples, who has led the campaign on behalf of the parents, said: "Even the police condemned the route as unsuitable for children to walk to school because it is narrow, unlit and the lanes have no paths."

She has been told, following a hearing before the county authority's appeals panel, that the children do not automatically qualify for free transport because of the distance they live from the secondary school.

To have allowed the appeal would have opened up the floodgates to many other similar cases, said the panel.

But Mrs Sharples said she was not giving up her fight and is asking Ryedale MP John Greenway to help.

"It seems that money is being put ahead of child safety" said Mrs Sharples