Lower speed limit near busy school
After years of trying, a Taranaki primary school finally has the safer road it wants.
In 2010, the Stratford Primary School commissioned a report that recommended a raft of safety improvements to Regan St, which runs along the front of the school.
These included temporarily lowering the speed limit during the mornings and afternoons as well as creating better parking.
On Tuesday evening, the Stratford District Council voted unanimously to accept a proposal to introduce a variable speed limit outside the school, which would reduce the speed limit to 40km/h between 8.25am and 9am and 20 minutes after school, as well as other times more than 50 students would be crossing the road.
The change will come into effect on September 13, after being approved by a full council meeting the day before.
The decision around whether to move the pedestrian crossing further up Regan St and away from the intersection with Hamlet St as well as incorporating more of the suggestions from the 2010 report will be discussed at a later date.
The speed limit along Regan St is 50km/h but around 30 per cent of the cars driving along the road flout the limit, a 10 day survey carried out in 2016 found. One driver was recorded driving at 120km/h past the school, although it is unknown what time of day that happened.
On Monday, principal Jason Elder said he approached the Stratford District Council late last year about introducing a variable speed limit as well as moving the pedestrian crossing further up Regan St away from the busy intersection it currently sits beside.
‘‘Because it’s so long it’s hard not to go fast along here,’’ he said.
‘‘The first thing is getting the reduced speed here to make it safer for our kids and that’s the priority and it is hard sometimes because you get 400 kids that get dropped off. It gets really busy and then when you get the weather that doesn’t help as well.’’