School crossing safety plea
A DAD is worried for the safety of children on the road outside a village primary school.
Allen Slingsby, 41, who has two children at Wainstalls School, fears a child could be killed or seriously injured if action isn’t taken.
Mr Slingsby has six-year-old Alex and Niamh, aged nine, at the school and has raised concerns over new entrances in use since Covid which he says puts children at risk.
Mr Slingsby says one of the school’s side exits brings excited children straight out onto the road where there is no pavement.
“As soon as you leave that exit you are straight out onto the road,” said Mr Slingsby. “I raised this with the school and the council back in November but there’s been a real lack of action.
“There’s a chance there could be an accident with a child seriously injured or worse. If that was to happen I wouldn’t be able to look myself in the mirror knowing I’ve tried to raise this issue. The lack of traction and focus when children’s safety is in question has been really frustrating.”
Calderdale Council’s assistant director for strategic infrastructure, Steven Lee, said to maintain social distancing between year groups, an additional entrance/exit is being used. Both roads around the school are narrow and a number of schemes have been introduced over the year to improve the arrangements for children accessing the school.
“The monitoring of traffic speeds around the school has been taking place throughout March and the results of this are currently being assessed.”
School principal Linda Waugh said: “The school and the local authority are working together to try and address, both in the short and longer term, the issues faced by the school community regarding traffic and parking concerns.”
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