The issue of “the school-run” has once again come to the fore on local social media. Nowhere more so than in the Furzebank area of Short Heath, Willenhall.

A fair point was raised by one contributor as to why it is Walsall Council hadn’t sent in traffic wardens to deal with the problem? At first glance this would seem to be the obvious thing to do. However, knowing a little bit about the problem leads me to thinking this might be more like treating the symptoms, rather than the actual problem.

There are a number of issues at play here, and it’s important that this is recognised. There’s the gradual shift away from parents walking their kids to school or kids just walking to school on their own. This has evolved over a number of years, and stems from a variety of reasons.

There’s the concern in today’s society, for the safety of children making their way to school. There is also the need in many families for both parents to work in order just to make ends meet. That’s a subject in itself and is being made worse by the Johnson Government’s failure to recognise just how big an issue this has become, and the need to take speedy appropriate action to deal with it.

Then there’s the distances kids and their parents have to travel to the school of choice. If indeed they have any choice at all. They are not always “on your doorstep” anymore. I say that as I attended a school in Pelsall even though I lived in Great Barr. This was not my choice, nor my parents’ choice. Where we lived on the edge of Great Barr education came under Staffordshire County Council and, as I’d failed at 11 to gain a place at QM, I was banished by the system to Pelsall for my secondary education.

The school in Pelsall was 2 bus rides away from where we lived, but at least I had a bus pass paid for by the education authority, so financially this wasn’t a problem, unlike today.

But I digress. In the case of the Furzebank area, there is the added complication of the sheer number of schools in proximity with each other. There are 5. A number of which are run by academies, whose governing bodies are remote. As a result, each school is run as a separate entity and has its own set of rules and policies which can have a knock-on adverse effect on a neighbouring school all of which has led to access issues by car and on foot which previously were not a problem.

So, as you can see, what at first glance would appear to be a simple matter to resolve, once you start to delve into the causes in order to find solutions becomes ever more complex. Add the fact that the council has no jurisdiction over the management of schools, (that’s very much comes under the senior management team and governors of each school), and you begin to see the reasons behind the current chaos that we have come to know as “the school run”.

In order to resolve at least some of the issues being experienced in the Furzebank area would require leadership, an open mind, and a readiness to bring the warring factions together to work through a set of viable alternatives. That leadership is currently lacking.