City won’t wait to make crossing safe
GEELONG council will step in to fund a crossing supervisor for a new Mount Duneed primary school amid concerns for student safety.
Mirripoa Primary School welcomed students to the new Unity Drive campus for the first time yesterday, hours after councillors voted to fund a crossing supervisor at traffic lights on the corner of Unity a and Sovereign drives. Kardinia Ward councillo lor Ron Nelson put forward th the motion to fund the su supervisor, citing concerns over the State Government’s process for funding c crossing supervisors after sc schools open.
“The city seeks funding c contributions for the cost of sc school crossing supervisors fr from the state government,” C Cr Nelson’s motion noted. “For a school crossing su supervisor funding to be consi sidered by the state governm ment, pedestrian and vehicle c counts are required to be undertaken after the school is opened to verify the need for a school crossing supervisor,” he noted.
“Generally, there is no provision in the state government funding model to fund an interim school crossing supervisor while the assessment process takes place.”
Cr Nelson said the government policy had left the city with little choice but to fund the safety measure.
The city will carry out traffic and pedestrian counts to determine if the threshold is met for the supervisor, and for a pedestrian crossing closer to the school.
New Mirripoa Primary principal Darryl Diment could not be reached for comment.
Councillors voted to consider allocating $115,000 from the 2020-21 budget to fund a new pedestrian crossing.
Councillors also stepped in to ensure students at St Catherine of Siena Primary School, Armstrong Creek, got a supervised crossing from the first day of the school year.