Reception Appeal- LA measured distance wrong

[APeakyBlinder]

Looking for some advice please. the LA seem to have measured the distance from our house to school wrong- the school is on a new build estate and the area is still being completed so I think it may be due to out of date mapping software.

The LA have measured us as living 0.51 miles from the school, however were actually 0.4- I think the software they're using doesn't realise that there is a pedestrian area cutting through the estate. This is the safest route and is the obvious route any parent would take as it avoids waking along a busy main road and big roundabout.

Don't think this will get DC in though as last child admitted was 0.374 from the school. We're currently 5th on the waiting list so my questions are, if the LA admit they made a mistake will they amend our position on the waiting list and should I make them aware of this prior to the appeal? Appeal isn't until mid August and only found this info out today! Thanks!

Check the admissions guide in how they measure distance. If it says 'by a lot walking route' you may be right, but if they say straight line or that only mapped roads count, it won't help you

Thank you! It's walking route and my route is on google maps now but I've got a feeling that it's not on the 'fancy' mapping software they use yet (or it is and they haven't paid to update the software yet- wouldn't surprise me based on our council!)

I meant 'lit' walking route', but if it just says 'walking route' sounds like you have a case if it's a public footpath not through a building site or similar.

The first question is whether or not the council has used this pedestrian area. They will have measured from a particular point on your property to a particular point on the school. Google, on the other hand, tends to go from the centre of your postcode area to the centre of the school's postcode area so can produce a distance that is significantly different for the same route.

Assuming they haven't used this pedestrian area, the next question is whether it qualifies for inclusion in the walking route. If you look in the small print the council should say exactly what can be used. It may be, as the previous poster was suggesting, that they insist on footpaths being lit, in which case the pedestrian area would only qualify if it is lit.

Turning to your questions, if the council haven't used routes including this pedestrian area and accept that they should have they will have to re-measure the distance for everyone on the waiting list and adjust the order of the list.

You should definitely make the council aware of this prior to the hearing. Apart from anything else, you are required to submit all evidence before the hearing. If you try to introduce new evidence at the hearing the appeal can be adjourned to a later date to allow everyone time to absorb the information.

You need to ask the council for a detailed route that they took to arrive at the measured distance. This will show you just was and was not included. Then you need to check what is said about measured distance - many LA do operate a system which has approved paths, usually with lights, so any new cut through on a new estate may well not be included.
Whether they will include a new path on this years appeals is not clear.
You still will not get a place based on your distance measurements, but my getting agreement to include the new path will at least get you nearer to the top of the waiting list.

Thank you all so much for the detailed answers. The path does have street lighting, it's quite hard to describe but it's a wide path running through a very open area of the estate with houses facing onto each side of the path (not a back alley if you see what I mean!). I've asked the LA for a detailed route so fingers crossed they missed this path in initial measurements🤞