By Oliver Lees
Staff and parents at a primary school in Woodend are concerned their campus does not have any safe crossing areas.
Macedon Ranges council received correspondence at a meeting last week that 156 parents have voiced their disapproval at the lack of road safety around the school.
St Ambrose Parish Primary School principal Bronwyn Phillips said in her 12 months at the school the issue has been raised a number of times.
“The traffic on Brooke Street has become even busier over the past five years as numbers have increased,” Ms Phillips said.
“It would be great if the council could at least improve the signage.
“You’d like to think it’s a priority to keep the kids safe.”
Geoff Martin is one of the parents advocating for better safety around the school.
According to Mr Martin, a group of parents had been in contact with council staff last year, who suggested the council was recording data and would soon be able to action change.
But Mr Martin said communication broke down when that member of staff stopped working at the council and didn’t properly hand over information of the project before leaving.
“I can’t recall ever seeing or hearing of a school in Victoria that doesn’t have a single safe crossing,” Mr Martin said.
“The director of assets at the council has been out to assess the site and said they could see the need for three crossings to be put in place at $60,000 each.
“But in the most recent budget the council has only allocated $60,000 total.
“We’re really disappointed, the risk to students has increased significantly and there is a chance of a serious accident.”
Mr Martin added there is a single road sign indicating a 40 kilometre speed limit but that the director of assets agreed it was too close to the school and didn’t give enough time for vehicles to slow down.
Macedon Ranges was contacted for comment but did not respond before deadline.
In response to the correspondence from the school’s parents noted at last week’s meeting, council stated: “They [council staff] are working together investigating the safety issues raised in the broader precinct area and the ways these can be addressed.”
