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by Lib Dem team on 11 July, 2010
Back in January I reported on a meeting I’d had with Mrs Yule, Headmistress at Lady Barn House School in Cheadle.
We were looking at the traffic problems caused by school traffic coming onto Schools Hill to collect and drop off kids.
At the time, the most realistic option to explore seemed to be a “walking bus” – where the pupils walk in a line to and from a drop-off/collection point (Shiers Drive being the most promising).
Today I’ve received a letter from Mrs Yule saying that the option has been examined but the school feels it’s neither safe nor practical given the location of the school and the number of children .
Whilst I’m disappointed, I of course appreciate that the safety of the children must be of prime concern.
Pam and I will continue looking for opportunities to improve the traffic and parking situations around the whole of our area, including our schools.
6 Comments
Iain, its probably been rejected on the bis that the vast majority of children are collected by car as most of them are out of area and the walking bus, whilst an admirable idea would probably, in effect, represent a daily fire drill. It does, however, remain a thorny issue and it would be good if the school started to come up with some options instead of fence sitting and alienating local residents even more.
Is it not possible to sort out some kind of rotar system using surnames so that children are picked up and dropped of at set intervals. Say A-D 8:30- 8:35 drop off, E-H 8:35-8:40 and so on, with cars issued coloured stickers to indicate their appropriate pick up time. Surely a constant flow of cars in and out of the school is safer and more convenient for all concerned than one mass pile up.
Iain, I suggest that a ‘ mini park and ride ‘ system is set up. Parents drop off/collect their children in Sainsburys Car park designated area. A member of school staff should be present. The school have a number of their own mini buses to transport the school children. The volume of traffic is inconvenient, a potential accident could occur if this situation is not resolved .
Hi Scott. That is an option I’ve discussed with the school, but they don’t think they can get it to work.
The problem, if I remember right, is that they’d need at least four staff dedicated to it: one at each end and two on the bus. There would also be a problem when the buses were away due to school trips.
Peter – I don’t know about a rota. In practise what would you do when parents turned up at the wrong time. Make them wait outside and cause even more chaos, or let them in and have the whole system break. Sounds pretty complicated.
This issue is being considered the wrong way round. Children should be set a minimum distance,(call it excercise)to walk to and from school each day. A circle should be drawn with circumference this distance from the school. The drop-off point should be the most convenient place on the circle. Parents could even accompany the children on the walk. It would do them no harm.
Iain, considering your reply and contributions from other residents, perhaps a compromise. I think Les Leckie has a good point. My thinking is to remove high volumes traffic at peak times from schools Hill and surrounding roads and to avoid moving this issue to another area would be to suggest that parents park at Sainsbury,s car park and walk to school, install zebra crossings on route enforce restricted parking zones. I must stress that its not just the inconvenience of being delayed the issue of a serious accident happening with cars overtaking stationary queuing traffic. I have witnessed one accident and countless ‘near miss’ accidents. Regards Scott