"Families forced to trudge through Somme-like conditions..."

From The Daily Mail:

For many children the daily trudge to school is bad enough, but spare a thought for these youngsters and their parents as they make their way to lessons. Pupils at the newly-opened £4million Chaddesley Corbett primary school in Worcestershire have to wade their way through a mud-filled trench because no pedestrian footpath was built.

Comparing it to the scene at the end of a First World War battle, parents have reacted angrily to the lack of a proper access route to the school. The primary only opened on Monday and following heavy rain the track to the school has churned up making children filthy before they arrive and parents with buggies barely able to get there.

Mother-of-two Kate Foreman, 31, said that taking her three-year-old daughter Isabelle to school for her first day today would be a nightmare.

She said: "It's a mudbath, it's like the Battle Of The Somme. There are people without mechanised transport who have to march to school and they won't be able to get there. You need wellies and waterproofs it's so bad.

"You've got no chance if you've got a pushchair as well - the wheels would get stuck. It's a complete oversight. They spent all that money on the school but didn't think how people could get there. And if that weren't all bad enough, why did the local education authority decide to waste money on laying mines and installing a German machine gun nest on the high ground? Where are our kids going to play football now that the fields are needed for mass graves?"