Kimberley councillor renews calls for pedestrian crossing outside town primary school

Coun Andy Cooper (Lab), who represents Kimberley on Broxtowe Council, says parents, governors and the head at Gilthill Primary School on Eastwood Road have been campaigning for more than four years to have some sort of crossing installed.

For some time, children going to school haven’t even had the help of a lolipop attendant to get them across the road safely.

This is now being rectified as one of the parents has agreed to do it and is currently receiving training.

But campaigners don’t think this is enough to mitigate the problem, which also affects elderly residents who struggle to cross safely, and would not have the help of a lolipop attendant.

Coun Cooper said: “There’s no crossing at all outside the school and not even had the traffic attendant for a while because it’s a very busy road and it’s a dangerous job.

"The head is worried sick that a child is going to get killed and someone actually was killed about 25 or 30 yards down the road a while back.

"The road is one of the main routes down to Ikea island and it’s always very busy.”

Coun Cooper is now calling on the county council to take action and put crossings in where they are needed, including outside the school.

He continued: “A few years ago the council installed a crossing on the road outside Basil Russell Park in Nuthall.

"I go to that park nearly every day and I’ve never had to use that crossing once.

"That’s what annoys me so much – the council has put a crossing in where we don’t need one and yet outside the school we can’t get one.

"The council has said is that it’s thinking of putting central refuge in the road outside the school.

"Well, to me, that’s even more dangerous.

"You’ll have kids stranded in the middle of the road and traffic with no compulsion to stop.

"The council has said its looking at it but it says there is a hell of a lot of utiltity wiring and pipework under the pavements where it would need to go so they’re waiting for comeback from the utility companies.

"But this has been ongoing for four years now, surely they would know what to do by now.

A highways manager from the county council said: “Road safety is extremely important to us, particularly around schools in Nottinghamshire.

“We have a dedicated Safer Highways team that has a year-round programme of work, including delivering road safety education to around 25,000 young people in the county.

“We currently looking at potential options to provide a crossing close to the school.

“Any crossing would require us to move the kerb line on the side of the school, which will impact a large amount of utility equipment.

"We are currently working with involved parties to understand the scale and feasibility of any utility changes.

“In the meantime, we are still pursuing interest in the vacant school crossing patrol role at the site.”