Child safety near schools a priority

COMMUNITY concerns are growing about school safety in Kilmore, particularly around Kilmore-Lancefield Road and Conway Street, Kilmore.

Former school crossing Officer Denise Galea spoke about her concerns of the roads network near four local schools as traffic congestion rises.

She said she wanted to see a safer approach to the corner of Kilmore-Lancefield Road and Conway Street, as well as a footpath constructed on the opposite side of the road to reduce risk.

“We need to get something done for the safety of the children, we are playing Russian roulette,” she said.

“It only takes one kid to get hit… We want to just improve the area for the children.

“There are not a lot of road markings about the crossing for students, but there are a lot of cars and buses coming through. Logically, we want to see a crossing closed and moved down the road, with a footpath on the other side to help students and even those residents in the nursing homes.”

The Mitchell Shire Council has allocated $159,000 to fix the missing links in footpaths across the shire.

Mayor Rhonda Sanderson said safety of students was paramount.

“As part of our ongoing commitment to fix footpath missing links across the shire, $159,000 is allocated in our 2018/19 capital works budget to construct a new footpath along the northern side of Kilmore-Lancefield Road, between Willowmavin Estate and Church Street,” she said.

“Improving the safety of our community is a priority for council and this new footpath will significantly improve safety for pedestrians, especially children, when travelling to and from the schools in this area.

“The safety of school children across our shire is a priority and we will continue to invest significant amounts of funding, and lobby for external grant funding, to fix the gaps in our footpath network, construct new school crossings, and fund school crossing supervisors.”

Kilmore Primary School Principal Kim Laffan said the school wanted to make sure the students felt safe to walk to school.

“Our main priority is students and their safety. We’d have a lot more people walking to school if it was safe a environment to do so… at the moment some parents are driving their kids,” she said.

Mother-of-five and school council parent Jodie Cloke said she wanted to stop the crisscrossing on the road.

“It is the ‘tetrising’ on the roads because of where things are… the long term solution would is a footpath which would be utilised for students and also the nursing homes,” she said.

“We don’t want to discourage people from walking to school.”