21 September (Part 2) - Parking outside schools. Always a problem
When I was at school only one teacher regularly brought his car to school (a lime green MG) and I
have no recollection of any pupil being driven in by a parent. Certainly I never
was even though my father owned a car and it was about 12 miles by road from
home to school. But times change and now ‘the school run’ is a problem everywhere.
Bexleyheath Academy in Woolwich Road is no exception and the head teacher
has been engaged in a campaign to make access to his school safer.
On June 18th 2014 his efforts were featured in the News Shopper. Councillor Don
Massey told the paper he was pleased that students were taking the issue
seriously; so presumably he was fully behind their efforts. But was his sound
bite translated into real action? Nope! Afraid not.
Here is what the head teacher wrote to parents a couple of days ago…
All the ideas put forward, zebra crossing, 20 m.p.h. zone, speed humps,
mini-roundabout, were rejected. The head teacher
reported that his pupils felt they were “simply not listened to”. Well that is
what Bexley council does and they will have learned a good and useful lesson.
Personally I think that humps and 20 m.p.h. zones are a waste of money but it’s
hard to think of a reason not to have a pedestrian crossing. It’s a busy road
and it’s a big school. It must be the cuts again.
Click images for the complete documents.
Note: The letter from the head teacher was reconstructed
from a text file. The layout varies from the original document.