Schools applaud council safety campaign

George Street Normal School principal Rod Galloway (left) supervises his pupils as they cross George St after school yesterday. The Dunedin City Council is looking at primary and secondary schools in Dunedin to determine which schools have a high road-safety risk. Mr Galloway says he has been pleased with the way the council has addressed the school's concerns about road safety. Photo by Tim Miller

The School Traffic Safety Group, led by the council, is contacting primary and secondary schools in Dunedin and determining which schools are most at risk.

Council safe and sustainable travel co-ordinator Charlotte Flaherty said the group was now in the process of refining its list of schools most at risk.

The group was looking at the size of the schools, how busy roads were outside schools, how many crossings there were, where school pupils left the school grounds and pedestrian behaviour in the area, Mrs Flaherty said.

The list idea was used because the council was regularly approached by schools about their road safety situations, and it could become overwhelming trying to deal with all the issues which came from those approaches, Mrs Flaherty said.

The council would approach those schools most at risk when the list was completed, which would most likely be early next year, she said.

East Taieri School principal Jennifer Horgan said what the group was trying to achieve by being proactive about road safety was fantastic.

As well as representing Dunedin primary schools in the school traffic safety group, East Taieri School had benefited from its relationship with the council, Mrs Horgan said.

East Taieri School travel plan co-ordinator Nic Brown said the school's road safety had greatly improved because of its relationship with the council.

"We wouldn't have looked at the way pupils were getting to and from school if we hadn't been working with the council," she said.

Dunedin secondary schools partnership manager Gordon Wilson said the schools applauded what the council was trying to do with the School Traffic Safety Group.

Both the council and schools needed to work together to make sure the road safety risk around schools was minimised, and the group allowed that, Mr Wilson said.

George Street Normal School deputy principal Anne Robertson said the council had been proactive in addressing the school's concerns about the safety of pupils using the road.

Since the start of the year council workers had been meeting representatives of the school to work out any road-safety problems, Mrs Robertson said.