20 schools could lose lollipop patrol

Sep 27 2008 by Neil Mckay, The Journal

SCHOOL lollipop men and women face being scrapped from outside more than 20 schools in County Durham.

Education chiefs say a recent review has identified some areas where demand has decreased over recent years, such as villages where a bypass has been introduced.

Durham County Council say they will now redirect resources from sites where demand is low to provide mobile lollipop patrols at the high risk sites.

But they added that 23 schools which currently have lollipop men or women face losing them.

John Richardson, the council’s Director of Environment, said a comprehensive review of the school crossing patrol service had shown that of 239 sites in the county, 71 do not meet national criteria for the provision of a crossing patrol. In other words, traffic is lighter than the national criteria stipulates.

“This has occurred as a result of changing patterns in the journey to school, and in some cases because of changes to the road layout,” he added. Cabinet members agreed to take a closer look at 23 that fell outside of the threshold.

Mr Richardson continued: “While ultimately, the total number of crossing patrol sites may be reduced slightly as a result of this new approach, the number of children who are escorted safely to school at points of highest risk will increase.”

He stressed: “We will need to carefully look at the individual circumstances of each site to consider any specific road safety issues such as accident history, traffic speeds, the number of heavy goods vehicles, street lighting and visibility – before identifying those at most risk of withdrawal.”

Even then, he added, there would be full consultation with the schools involved before a final decision.

Coun Bob Young, Cabinet Member for the Environment, Traffic and Transportation said: “We have become increasingly concerned at our ability to ensure that cover at our busiest sites is available when the normal patrols are unable to attend. We know that this can cause worry and distress to parents.

“By concentrating our attention on those sites we consider most important, we should be able to increase our pool of reserve and mobile crossing patrol attendants, and this should significantly reduce the risk of any of our high risk sites being left unmanned through sickness or holiday absence.

“Overall, this strategy will offer the highest level of protection to the greatest number of children across County Durham.”