Red light for safer route plan (From Gazette Series)

Red light for safer route plan

PARENTS at Charfield Primary School look unlikely to get a safer route to school because the school's current travel scheme does not include plans for signal controlled crossings.

Earlier this year residents started a campaign to get pelican crossings installed at two well-used crossing points by the school and at Longs View.

But at Tuesday's meeting of Charfield Parish Council, the clerk read a letter from Mark Sherman, a senior engineer at South Gloucestershire Council, to Paul Beresford, chairman of the school's governors.

In it he said: "The appropriate way of securing funding for proposals to increase safety on routes to school is to raise the issue as a priority in the school travel plan.

"You therefore need to amend the plan accordingly and forward the amended plan to the acting school travel plan officer."

Mr Sherman estimated that it would cost £100,000 to install the crossings.

In his letter he continued: "I anticipate that in the forthcoming 2005-2006 financial year we will receive £200,000 of central government funds in order to finance the implementation of safer routes to school schemes in the whole of South Gloucestershire.

"There are approximately 115 schools in South Gloucestershire and many of these will have prepared travel plans.

"Two years ago a safer route to school scheme costing approximately £15,000 was implemented in Charfield. Other schools are still waiting for funding. It will therefore be difficult to justify allocating half of the whole safer route to school budget to just one school when you have already benefited from safer routes to school funds whilst others have received nothing."

In reply Mr Beresford wrote: "I agree that our present school travel plan does not include any aspirations for crossings on Wotton Road. However we are preparing a report which will update the plan requesting crossings.

"We appreciate that two years ago footpaths in the village were improved. This was needed by the whole community not just school pupils - some footpaths were far too narrow and others dangerous."

Parish council chairman Cllr John Acton said: "I think it is very unlikely that funding is going to come out of the school travel plan budget. We have got it on the agenda for the annual parish meeting so we will have to see what the situation is then."