Agenda item

A petition was presented at the October 2014 Committee. The petition stated:  “We, the parents, residents and concerned members of this community are urging the council to assess the lack of road safety measures outside Pine Ridge Infant & Nursery School, Esher Road, Camberley. It is becoming increasingly dangerous for our children making their daily journeys to and from school. It is indeed an accident waiting to happen.   4yr old Finley Fitzpatrick was involved in an RTA on the 1st May 2014 while crossing Mitcham Rd due to instruction from the school to only use the entrance from Mitcham Rd and the lack of school warning signs. Therefore, we would like the council to implement improved road safety to provide our children with the safer environment they deserve.”

Work has been ongoing with the school over this issue and a report is attached. 

Concern has been expressed over the safety of children arriving and leaving Pine Ridge infant School.

The Local Committee (Surrey Heath) agreed:

(i)     That Pine Ridge Infant School undertake additional school travel plan and road safety education activities including Park SMART, “Pedals” cycle/ scooter training, the Teaching Assistant Pedestrian Awareness course, a Walking Bus and the “Golden Boot Challenge”. The school has begun implementing these activities, supported by the County’s Sustainable Travel Team.

(ii)    That the Headteacher reopen the combined vehicle and pedestrian entrance on Esher Road at lunch times for use by parents of children attending the nursery, on a trial basis.

(iii)  To include the suggestion for mandatory School Keep Clear markings on Mitcham Road within the annual Surrey Heath parking review.

(iv)  To include the suggestion for improved dropped kerb crossing points described within this report within their forward programme of highway improvements. The committee will then be able to decide whether to allocate funding depending upon prioritisation against other schemes in Surrey Heath.

Concern has been expressed over the safety of children arriving and leaving Pine Ridge infant School.  The Chair took some public questions under this agenda item.

Question from Terry Beaumont. Local Resident, Old Dean Estate.

Terry Beaumont gave apologies from Jon Williams, who presented the original petition to the Committee.  He stated that the report missed the points raised in the petition in that the closure of the school gate had caused extensive problems for the local residents and had created substantial problems on the Highway.  He further asked whether a traffic counter had been fitted onto Mitcham Road, where the children now had to cross a busy estate road and bus route.

Carl Crease read out his written question on Pine Ridge and asked for Councillors and Officers to consider the following points:-

·         The report refers to two accidents along Mitcham Road in the past ten years.  However, this equated to one accident in 9 years prior to the changes and one accident in the two years since the gates were closed, which would suggest a possible escalation.

·         The closure of the school gate now results in a private access road being used by parents and children to enter the school.  The private access road contains 5 private residentlal garages and parking bays, which cannot now be used safely by the residents during school opening and closing times.

·         The report refers to improvements to signage etc costing £3,000 of pubic highways funds.  Why is the school not being required to re-open their school gates and therefore save this public money?

·         Why has there, to date, been no public consultation on these changes and why have the views and opinions of the local residents, many of whom  have been adversely affected by this decision, not been included in the report?

Duncan Knox, Road Safety Team, thanked the petitioners for highlighting their concerns.  He advised that a traffic counter had been installed, but that this had to be attached to street furniture, hence its location for the assessment.

He further added that the accident data only included casualties, not near misses and that only 1 recorded incident since the changes did not give a pattern or necessarily indicate an escalation, but accepted that residents concerns over this needed to be addressed.

He stated that the new Head of the School could not attend the meeting, but was committed to improving road safety training and sustainable travel.  The gate closure had been discussed with the school, but that they were clear that there were safety issues and insufficient space within the school site to enable re-opening of the gates.  Officers were unable to observe this themselves.  The parking / access road should not be blocked and keep clear signage may help with this.

Andrew Milne, Area Highways Manager (NW) noted that that, with hindsight, the school should have discussed the changes with the local residents affected.  He added that he was not convinced that the changes had improved safety on the Highway, but that even if he disagreed with the school over their actions, he was not in a position to force them to change.  He further noted that although the potential negative impact on the highways did involve spending public money, the sum of £3,000 was a relatively small sum.

Local Councillors Bill Chapman and Rodney Bates noted that it had taken time to get a report prepared but thanked Officers, who had worked hard, for their efforts.  Both Councillors welcomed the fact that the relationship between the school and residents had improved and both were happy to help build on this further.  Cllr Chapman stated that he would look again at getting white lines for residents access points and also that he would be happy to fund school travel policies.

The Local Committee (Surrey Heath) agreed:

(i)    That Pine Ridge Infant School undertake additional school travel plan and road safety education activities including Park SMART, “Pedals” cycle/ scooter training, the Teaching Assistant Pedestrian Awareness course, a Walking Bus and the “Golden Boot Challenge”. The school has begun implementing these activities, supported by the County’s Sustainable Travel Team.

(ii)   That the Headteacher reopen the combined vehicle and pedestrian entrance on Esher Road at lunch times for use by parents of children attending the nursery, on a trial basis.

(iii)  To include the suggestion for mandatory School Keep Clear markings on Mitcham Road within the annual Surrey Heath parking review.

(iv)  To include the suggestion for improved dropped kerb crossing points described within this report within their forward programme of highway improvements. The committee will then be able to decide whether to allocate funding depending upon prioritisation against other schemes in Surrey Heath.