Parents in Milford Haven are being urged to fight a ban which means their children are not allowed to cycle into school because of a “lack of safe routes”.

Milford Haven School stopped pupils cycling several years ago but parent Nigel Clark hopes the decision can be reversed.

His son James, aged 15, is a keen mountain biker and a cycle path covers the majority of the route from his home in Llandstadwell to Milford Haven, but he is unable to ride to school because of the ban.

“You see lots of advertisements and press about children using computers and carrying excess weight, so stopping our children from having enjoyable exercise just getting from a to b because of health and safety rules is ridiculous,” said Mr Clark.

“I understand that the school is probably caught between a rock and a hard place with this, but I don’t think many parents know about the ban and I hope we could actively encourage the school to help children make the best use of what is available for them.”

Senior project officer for school travel, Merryn Preece, from the UK’s leading sustainable transport charity, Sustrans, said it was a shame that cycling was banned at Milford Haven School.

“We understand that safety is of paramount importance and we would be more than happy to speak to the school to see how we can support them to enable pupils to start riding to school.

“Cycling to school is a great way to introduce regular exercise into everyday life as well as improving the local environment.” A Pembrokeshire County Council spokesman said cycling policy was a decision for individual schools and the Milford Haven School ban was due to “a lack of cycle paths and safe routes to the school”.

She added: “The decision follows a risk assessment carried out by the governors under the former headteacher and the situation has not changed.

“The issue has been raised by the school council and there are plans to visit developments at Greenhill School in Tenby to see if there is a way forward.”