Few plus marks for school traffic calming

TRAFFIC calming near St Andrew's School was given poor marks on the first day of term. Special constable Steve Le Prevost said that although the speed cushions had slowed vehicles, they had not made his job any easier.

'We had an incident this morning when a car slowed for the speed hump and when I stepped into the road, they didn't want to stop at all,' he said.

Head teacher Mary Sebire went to watch the effects of the calming measures at lunchtime and after school in the afternoon.

'Within 30 seconds I saw someone doing more than 30mph and someone else go around the humps,' she said.

'It's early days and I would like to see them in action a bit longer. They are clearly slowing the traffic down, however, I've seen people ignoring the limit.'

She added that her opinion all along was the road needed traffic lights as well.

Mr Le Prevost, who has been in the job since January, added that one car swerved around a hump in the morning and another in the afternoon.

Another car driver also had to slam on their brakes to stop in time.

'I'm worried that in the long-term if people are irate at the humps, the person they will take their anger out on is the one standing in the road having to stop them.'

He said that people had been asking him why the humps were put in.

'From my point of view, I didn't really want them. They put in a mirror, which is a good idea because I can't see properly up the road, but the problem with it being so small is trying to judge the distance in relation to the road.'

He said that the speed cushions would have been fine in an estate.

'From my point of view, traffic lights are the safest option, but it would still involve me having to go out and walk with the children.'

'But especially in the winter months when it's dark, people will be able to see something's going on with a big red light which tells you you're going to have to stop.'

He added that railings on the church side of the road were in the wrong place to stop children running across from the car park.

The Environment Department said it was continuing to monitor the traffic calming measure and would consider shortly what extra measures were needed.

'The board will consider first of all whether installing extra speed cushions to prevent drivers from swerving across the road to avoid those already in place is in fact necessary,' said a department spokesman.

'One of the factors that will be used when making this decision is how effective the single speed cushions have been already in slowing the traffic.'

It will also take into account whether the incidences of drivers avoiding the humps are decreasing.

The controversial traffic calming measures were introduced by the department soon after the school broke up for the summer holiday.

The PTA had called for traffic lights to make it safer for children to cross from the church car park.