Council planning to stop funding school crossing patrols

[GhostsToMonsoon]

My county council is planning to stop funding all school crossing patrols from next September.

I know they have a finite budget but I'm quite angry about this and worried for children's safety, particularly high school children who may be crossing busy roads and won't be accompanied by parents. My children's school is on a residential street which is normally quiet but is very busy at school run times.

They say that parents or businesses can fund the crossing patrols. However our HT expressed doubt about this as they'd have to pay redundancy if they couldn't sustain the funding (about £4K per year).

Is this a common situation in other areas?

Some roads are very busy and it really helps having a lollipop person to stop traffic - cars are legally obliged to stop for him/her. You can't just stride into the road otherwise. Plus there's lots of bad driving by parents on the school run.

When I was at high school I had to cross a busy A road on my way to school. It would have been very difficult and dangerous without the lollipop lady. (After I left school a pedestrian crossing was installed).

High school pupils don't walk with their parents and where I live, they may need to cross busy A roads to get to school.

I will ask our school if there's any chance a caretaker could take over. I don't know how it'd work for the high school - there are several different crossing patrols at the moment for pupils making their way there.

Looks like my county isn't unusual. Road safety charity Brake says there has been a decline in school crossing patrols. In the UK in 2015, 511 children were killed or injured in road accidents that occurred at the beginning or end of the school day.

The crossing points st both the middle school and high school are not specially designated. You have to put your life in your hands and cars will not stop.

We nearly lost them in Devon, the council voted to get rid of the funding, but they backtracked eventually. It took a huge amount of effort, petitions, protests, emails/ letters to the head of the council, but it worked.

Lots of irrelevant stuff posted since then, but if you go back to 2016 you can see how the campaign was organised here: fb:page/1101314066586225

As far as I know, Devon is the only county where the council have ever reversed a decision to cut funding.