Hebden Royd Mayor and local Head Teachers address road safety concerns
Monday, 26 January 2015
The Mayor of Hebden Royd, Councillor Jonathan Timbers addressed local primary school heads at a meeting of the Calder Valley Collaborative (CVC) on Tuesday 20 January 2015 about road safety. Parents in Cragg Vale, Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd are concerned about a range of road safety issues including traffic, parking and signage, which are increasing the risk to their children.
Cllr Timbers with local primary school heads and governors from Hebden Bridge, Mytholmroyd, Cragg Vale, Heptonstall and Luddenden Foot.
Paying tribute to the preparatory work of Cllr Scott Trickett, a former Hebden Royd Mayor, and councillor for Cragg Vale, Cllr Timbers said a number of issues had been identified by parents including clearway parking outside of schools, insufficient or ineffective signage and cars mounting pavements. He added, 'Calderdale Highways Department has made the situation a lot more heated by telling parents that it can't justify even minor improvement unless their children get hurt in an accident. Whatever local authorities do in the rest of the UK, we should be basing traffic management around schools on risk, not deaths or injuries. There are all sorts of ways that Highways can work with parents and communities to design cost effective traffic calming measures'.
CVC agreed to start collecting data on near misses to send to Calderdale. Cllr Timbers said, "I urge parents or carers, whose child has had a near miss on the way to and from school, to report it to the school, so we can compile more evidence for Calderdale."
Heads also pointed out that sometimes some parents could be to blame for blocking clearways. In response, Cllr Timbers urged parents, "I know it can be really frantic and difficult in the morning and we're all under a lot of pressure with work and childcare, but please, please never park in a clearway when dropping off or picking up. Please don't increase the risk of accident to our children."
The Calder Valley Collaborative is a group of schools with a formal agreement to raise standards for all our children. The CVC recognises the fact that formal collaborative arrangements have great potential to enhance the quality of teaching and extend learning opportunities for our young people.
The schools involved are - Burnley Road Academy, Central Street Infants, Cragg Vale Primary, Hebden Royd C of E Primary, Heptonstall Primary, Luddenden CE Primary, Luddenden Foot Academy, Midgley Primary, Old Town Primary, Riverside Junior School, Scout Road Academy, Stubbings Infants, Woodbank Special Primary and Calder High School.