Parent governor wants to help pupils walking to Oliver's Battery primary (From Hampshire Chronicle)

Parent governor wants to help pupils walking to Oliver's Battery primary

8:30am Thursday 17th December 2009

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A PARENT governor is calling for road safety improvements for hundreds of pupils walking to a Winchester primary school.

Enda Smyth, a governor at St Peter’s Catholic Primary School in Oliver’s Battery, knows more than most the terrible injuries young road accident victims can suffer.

The father-of-three is a paediatric intensive care nurse at Southampton General Hospital.

He said: “One of my jobs is to go out by ambulance and collect critically-ill children from district hospitals across the region in need of intensive care beds at Southampton.

“I know from experience very often children are hurt in accidents at school drop-off or pick-up times.

“Very often the parents will say it was a known danger spot and something should have been done.”

He added: “I want to keep our children safe.”

The 42-year-old nurse is lobbying highway chiefs and Winchester county councillors for a safer pedestrian crossing in Stanmore Lane, as well as more railings along busy Badger Farm Road.

Parents are worried about their children using the existing traffic light-controlled pedestrian crossing at the top of Stanmore Lane, as vehicles can turn from Romsey Road while the ‘green man’ is showing.

Hundreds of children, including pupils from nearby Kings’ School, ignore it and cross opposite the former Stanmore Hotel — a better spot for a pedestrian crossing, says Mr Smyth.

He is also campaigning for railings to be extended along busy 40mph Badger Farm Road where parents, many with toddlers, walk their children to and from school along a narrow pavement.

The road safety campaign comes as the 323-pupil school in Oliver’s Battery Road North is trying to increase the number of pupils who walk or bus to school, and cut the number of cars clogging local roads.

Mr Smyth said: “It is difficult at St Peter’s because we want to encourage more pupils to walk, but neither end of Oliver’s Battery Road North is particularly safe.”

Mr Smyth said he was not aware of any accidents involving pupils, but added the school was “vigilant” in promoting road safety — educating parents about responsible parking and mounting parent patrols.

County councillor Phyrnette Dickens said she backed the school road safety campaign.

She said: “I chair Winchester road safety council at Hampshire County Council, and I would love to see some improvements here.

“We are looking at the traffic lights issue and have met the school governors.”

Cllr Dickens said developer contributions from the redevelopment of the Stanmore Hotel site could possibly fund road safety improvements, including pavements on both sides of Oliver’s Battery Road North.

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