ST FRANCIS PS CROSSING PATROL MAN ISSUES

Northern Ireland World

Parents shocked at removal of school crossing patrol man in Lurgan, Co Armagh

Transcript

00:00And who's your favourite lollipop man? John. And what's happening, is he going away? Yes.

00:08And are you sad? Yes. Do you want John to stay? Yes. So Charlene, tell me what happens

00:15at this time of day at St Francis Primary School. It seems to be very busy. It's extremely

00:20busy. This is one of the main arterial routes through this town. As you can see, you know,

00:27the traffic that's coming up here, you know, there's some in the mornings, especially because

00:31it's in rush hour. You know, you have people going to their work, heading to the motorway,

00:35and then you have other ones that's coming through here to get to their work in the town

00:39and the outskirts. This school is just right in the middle of this road. So you can see

00:45John at the minute. So basically, when the kids run up, the gate is very close to the

00:50traffic light system. And quite often, you'll see groups of kids just running up. I mean,

00:55if you look at the numbers alone, this school in St Francis is one of the top five biggest

01:00schools in the north. The numbers state, you know, you can see it's a primary school, and

01:06you know, 290 children alone are below the age of seven. The total numbers for this school,

01:12there's 820 kids going through those gates every day. So you can imagine in rush hour,

01:17you know, with the cars that's coming down here, you know, and kids just running in groups

01:21or with their parents, you know, they're just running straight for the road. You know,

01:25you see John and John some mornings will have to actually stand out himself, you know, even

01:29if the light is red, because the number of cars that's breaking the red light, if he

01:34is not there and manning that road, them kids are dark night. And it's an inevitable, it's

01:39just an inevitability that something's going to happen here.

01:42A lot of those cars aren't really slowing down towards the traffic lights either?

01:49No, they don't slow down. I mean, in 2019, there was a public discussion regarding this.

01:55You know, the Education Authority, I think it was the road service, the police, the elected

02:00representatives were all involved in those discussions. And the conclusion of that was

02:04basically that there was going to be no traffic calming measures in the form of ramps or anything,

02:10you know, like that, because they recognised that this was a main arterial route. So on

02:16the one hand, they're recognising that it's a main arterial route. And on the other hand,

02:20they're able to say and the Education Authority is able to say with such ease, you know, that

02:24there will be no replacement of a patrolman because there is a traffic light system, which

02:30parents just can't believe, you know, it's absolutely crazy.

02:33So tell me when did you find out that the patrolman was going to be here no longer?

02:39So the school had sent out an email to parents yesterday. And they had said that they had

02:46contacted the Education Authority, they've been in discussions with the Education Authority.

02:50And the Education Authority has basically said that the policy that is dictating their

02:55actions on this is one where all roads are treated the same basically, that there's going

03:01to be no assessment done of this road once this patrolman leaves because of the fact

03:07that there is a traffic light system in place. Now, parents are absolutely, you know, astounded

03:13at that, because you cannot possibly treat this road, you know, in the same way as you

03:17would treat a country road or a country school. And the fact that there is no assessment even

03:24being done. I mean, you know, I've been speaking to a couple of parents and you know, even

03:28they're saying that, like, you know, if they had come out and basically assess this one

03:33and look at this road, and there wouldn't be a question as to whether or not there should

03:38be a patrolman on these, on these traffic lights. But the fact that they're not even

03:43coming out to assess, I mean, this policy has been created by someone sitting at a desk

03:49that probably doesn't even know this town, doesn't know this school, and it can be created

03:53so easily. But, you know, in speaking to a couple of parents from yesterday, you know,

03:58our question is this, you know, Road Service, Education Authority, the police, everybody

04:03can sit in a room and talk about this. But my question to them is, if there's a child

04:07killed on that crossing, which inevitably there's going to be something happen, because

04:11we all see it every morning, you know, who's liable for that? Who's going to be liable

04:16for that? Is it going to be the person who created this policy in the Education Authority?

04:19Or is it going to be Road Service? Who is it? Because make no doubt about it, we'll

04:24be pulling it right back to this policy. And what they have said to this school, you can

04:28see it yourselves, the school is using resources themselves to put people on those gates.

04:34You know, our local clan of Gael, our local club, Clan of Gael, they extend their use

04:39of their car park for the parents and the people who are picking up. So we're having

04:43to do our own management, you know, as parents and as a school, you know, to make sure that

04:48these kids are safe. So if there's policies out there that is actually, you know, using

04:53cost cutting measures and masking them, you know, when it's a child protection issue,

04:58you know, people have a right to say, you know, that's just not acceptable. And it won't

05:03be acceptable. And if the EA is looking, you know, if the Education Authority is looking

05:07700 odd families out in the front of them gates and on that road, they're going the

05:12right way about it.

05:13So has anybody contacted the Education Authority to ask why this has happened?

05:19Yeah, I mean, there was a lot of parents called, I called them yesterday. You know, the school

05:24had informed us that they've been in discussions. I think elected representatives have been

05:27in discussions with them. And, you know, I think parents are contacting them directly

05:31by email and telephone number now. But whenever I spoke to them, you know, the number, first

05:37of all, was a Belfast number, you know, should know knowledge about Lurgan or should know

05:42knowledge about this school in particular. She just reiterated the policy that no assessment

05:47would be required because, you know, there's a traffic light system in place. And I said

05:52to her that, you know, that basically the danger of that and, you know, that it's an

05:57accident waiting to happen. And she just said, you know, basically, look, you know, it's

06:02possibly a policing matter. It's nothing really that they can do because of this policy, which

06:07I mean, it's just it's ridiculous, really.

06:09If you notice, I mean, just around the corner. So you have industrial estates around there.

06:12You have a lot of factories heading down there. You're heading straight on to the M1. And

06:17then the traffic that's going up here because there's another school, you know, that's just

06:22up the street a bit. And then you have access to the town. And double that with William

06:27Street being closed and the absolute mess that is the train station and the number of

06:32times those gates are down. Most of the traffic are coming around here. And so there's no

06:37ramps on this road. There's no speed measurements on this road. The only thing that is here

06:42really is, you know, the traffic lights and a sign to say that there's a school ahead,

06:48which anybody with any ounce of sense that would be looking at that would be going, I

06:52mean, that's that's just ridiculous. So, you know, something needs done. And in fact, I

06:57know we're talking about, you know, we're talking about John's replacement and being

07:03able to get somebody in. But really, what is public bodies doing? You know, whenever

07:07they're seeing a school of this size and magnitude and they're not even taking traffic calming

07:12measures serious and they can pass it over. I mean, it's not going to go away.

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