Road Safety Committee connecting with Local Government

Noranda Primary school
Noranda Primary School
44

On Wednesday 13th, the Noranda Primary School P&C Road Safety Committee held their 2nd meeting. The meeting was again attended by the Principal, and interested parents and grandparents.

One strategy the committee has decided to focus on, to help mitigate the road safety issues around our school, is to work towards reducing cars around the school at drop off and pick up times. The committee understand however that if we want to encourage people to use walking, cycling and scooting to get to school, we need to ensure there are safe, accessible and connected pathways from the school catchment area to the school grounds. We also need to look further at how students are accessing the school upon arrival with the goal to keep cars separate from pedestrians and cyclists especially around the front of the school, near the staff carpark.

To investigate improving the pathway in our area, the committee invited the Engineering Manager from the City of Bayswater, Bryce Coelho, to come to the meeting. Bryce said many schools are facing the same issues that Noranda PS are in relation to traffic and parking congestion and are also looking for ways to improve this. He spoke with the group about an initiative of the City of Bayswater called ‘Safe Routes to School’. The Safe Routes to School plan aims to better connect all the schools in the City with their surrounding school catchments, by improving conditions and facilities for pedestrians and bikes along major access routes (including through new path connections, pedestrian-priority street crossings, speed limits and traffic signage).

The committee will continue to work with the City in 2020 to form part of this plan, as we have already identified areas where additional pathways and better connected pathways would ensure our students have a safer way to get to school when walking, cycling and scooting. These pathway improvements would also better encourage students to access the school from Deschamp Reserve, which directly adjoined the school, providing an access where kids and cars are separated.

The next step is to meet with our local ward representative from council to seek funding for these improvements. The student committee will work on ways to promote and encourage students and parents accessing the school from Deschamp Reserve in 2020, using a Park n Walk initiative.

Discuss this story

1 Comments

Please login to comment

James (Your Move)

It sounds like you are making some good links with the City of Bayswater - well done. You earned 30 points for engaging with your local government on pathway improvements, plus a bonus of 10 points for your detailed outline of the meeting.

Report comment