Final decision made on Peterborough primary school crossing patrols

A proposal to cease the crossing patrol services at Eye, Newark Hill, Werrington and Old Fletton primary schools was approved by councillors as part of the 2024/25 budget at a saving of £39,000 a year.

At Eye Primary School, the council recently reinstated the school crossing patrol service until a permanent zebra crossing is installed by a nearby housing developer. This came after a successful petition from parent Katie Berry.

However, a separate petition to reinstate the patrols at all of the schools, created by Nyree Ambarchian, received more than 550 signatures and was presented to full council earlier this year, who decided to send the decision back to cabinet.

On October 2, cabinet members went with officers’ recommendations to uphold the original decision to scrap the patrols and instead implement additional mitigation measures.

Cllr Angus Ellis, cabinet member for environment and transport, said: “We recognise this is an important issue and we have visited sites and had further discussions with ward councillors.

“We are proposing to implement additional mitigation measures to support people crossing the road.

“These include a new school crossing by Newark Hill school, temporary school crossing patrols at Eye until the new zebra crossing is installed, and upgraded signage and 20mph zone outside Werrington school.”

Lewis Banks, transport and environment manager at the council, added that there was a dedicated road safety officer who visits all schools to deliver road safety education.

“As part of this process we have reached out a number of times to those schools as well to offer enhanced services which I believe some of the schools, if not all of them, have taken,” he said.

Werrington parent Kerri Deboo, who presented the petition to full council earlier this year on behalf of Ms Ambarchian, previously said: “Every morning and afternoon, young children step off the pavement, school bags on their backs, trusting the world around them to keep them safe. Without crossing patrols, that trust is misplaced.

“The advice given to the cabinet, by officers’ own admission, is driven purely by budget. Yet the savings at stake are a drop in the ocean – dwarfed by the risk faced by children navigating fast-moving traffic simply to reach their classrooms.

“Yes, new safety measures are promised, but crucially, they are not yet in place. Until they are, removing patrols is like pulling away a safety net while children are still on the high wire.”