YOUNGSTERS will no longer have to scramble through a hedge and walk over a muddy field to get to school after the installation of a new footpath.

Pupils returning to St Michael’s School in Camulodunum Way, Colchester, in September will be able to make use of the new walkway installed by Essex County Council.

Dave Harris, who represents Shrub End on Essex County Council, said he was delighted to see the long-standing issue finally fixed.

“For years, the ever growing class numbers have had to come from a wider catchment area,” he said.

“The children have had to negotiate, along with their mums and dads, a route to school which involved facing traffic with no footpath, and then clambering through a gap in the hedge to walk through Maypole Green Road from Berechurch Hall Road.

“I submitted a proposal to Essex County Council’s local highways panel to create a safe footpath.

“This proposal was eventually agreed and budget allocate and then the work was done over the past five weeks.”

Mr Harris officially opened the new pathway alongside headteacher Gail Burns and the council’s sustainable travel planning manager Nicholas Hill this week in a socially distanced ceremony.

He said the new pathway will have multiple benefits - including encouraging more families to walk to school now they can be certain it is safe.

He said: “This will be good in terms of there being less cars on the road.

“I personally know parents who would not risk the walk because they had to go facing the traffic with no footpath

“This work will put children in a place of safety at all times which I am pleased about.

Chairman of the local highways panel Ann Brown echoed Mr Harris. She added: “It is good to see a new footpath put in to ensure children’s safety is paramount.”