Signs all point
Balbeggie parents have vowed to keep fighting to retain the village’s crossing patroller after Perth and Kinross Council agreed last Friday that lollipop ladies across the authority must go if a ‘safe alternative’exists.
Balbeggie has a puffin crossing and this could be considered enough of a safety measure for the lollipop lady to be retired from active duty.
Currently around 90 children attend the primary school and there are fears without a lollipop lady they will be put at risk as they cross a busy road.
Parents gathered on Friday - as councillors voted on the budget proposals - to show their support for Yvonne Nicol, the school crossing patrol officer.
Mum-of-three Emma Barstow began a change.org online petition that has so far gathered 262 signatures calling on PKC to leave the lollipop lady in place at Balbeggie.
Chair of the Balbeggie Parent Council, Jillian Martin (34) started a paper petition which she handed in to her council representative Councillor Lewis Simpson last week.
Jillian, whose four children are aged 11, 8, 7 and
4, was firm about the need for a person to keep the school crossing safe, not an automatic light which drivers (and children in a hurry) could ignore.
Jillian said:“Children of seven or eight are not able to process all the information that indicates if a road is safe or not. They need an adult, they may just run across the road when they see a green man lit up.
“When the puffin crossing was put in recently, we welcomed it as a measure to protect the wider community, the older members of the Balbeggie community. The village hall and the shop are on opposite sides of the main road.
“As a parent body we are not happy at all with the prospect of losing our lollipop lady. She crosses the children safely.
“That road is extremely busy and a puffin crossing is not going to do the same job as the lollipop lady.
“The council seem to think they do a duplicate job.”