Hundreds sign petition to prevent crossing cuts

HUNDREDS of people have already signed a petition against council plans to axe funding for school crossing patrols.

Staffordshire County Council is planning to withdraw funding for all 248 school crossing patrols from September next year as it attempts to bridge a £35 million funding gap.

But the idea has sparked outrage from parents and an online petition – which attracted hundreds of signatures within hours of its launch – has been set up by Biddulph town councillor Jill Salt.

Mrs Salt says on the online petition: “Staffordshire County Council wishes to stop all Staffordshire crossing patrols.

“It wants to offload this cost to volunteers or parish councils with tiny budgets.

“Tell them that our children are priceless and we won’t sacrifice them for the council’s austerity policy.”

The council is looking to withdraw its support for school crossing patrols – saving £540,000-a-year. It says uniforms, equipment and training will still be provided for community-run schemes.

Parents in Endon – where crossing wardens help pupils from three schools cross the busy A53 Leek Road – are devastated by the news.

Mother-of-four Karen Gould, of Station Road, has two children at St Luke’s C of E Primary and one at Endon High School. The 42-year-old said: “There is no way you can cross this road at school time without a crossing warden.

“When I pick up from the afterschool club and the warden patrol isn’t here, I can spend 20 minutes waiting to cross – and I can have two or three children with me. You have to rely on the kindness of someone stopping their car to let you cross.

“This road is horrific and the council should be doing more to keep children safe, not less.”

Joanne Yates, of Baddeley Edge, has two children at St Luke’s. She said: “The A53 is such a dangerous road and it’s impossible to cross. A crossing warden is not a luxury, it’s a necessity. Taking it away will put children’s lives in danger.”

Mum-of-six Lisa Jennings, who has two children at Endon High and three at St Luke’s, says her 10-year-old son will no longer be able to go to school alone if the crossing warden is axed.

The 40-year-old, of Woodvale Crescent, said: “We need the crossing. My 10-year-old uses it every day and if it wasn’t there he couldn’t walk to school on his own.

“It would be a nightmare, you just wouldn’t be able to cross the road. There is a pedestrian crossing further down the road but it’s the other side of Clay Lake, which is too dangerous to cross.

“There must be other areas where the council can save money without putting people in danger.”

Forty-nine-year-old Jo Spooner, whose 13-year-old daughter goes to Endon High, added: “This is an incredibly busy road and, with the number of children that walk up and down it, it would be ludicrous not to have a crossing warden.”

Council leaders say they have been left with ‘no choice’ over their school crossing patrol spending.

Councillor Helen Fisher, cabinet member for highways, said: “We are facing a £35m funding gap next year due to record spending on care, at a time when national funding has fallen.

“As we have already reduced our own running costs by £240m over the past nine years we have had no choice but to look at savings across some non-statutory areas including, very reluctantly, school crossing patrols. We need to look at how they can continue to be funded if we can no longer do so.

“One option would be for us to offer the management, training and uniform of patrols with communities providing the funding.”