Seeking safer school routes

Routes are to be planned in Southwell to make it safer for children to walk or cycle to school.

Southwell Town Council hopes to work on the project with parents and staff from Holy Trinity Infants’, Lowe’s Wong Infants’, Lowe’s Wong Junior, and the Minster schools.

They hope to create recommended routes and improve problem areas where roads are unsafe to cross.

Mr Andy Gregory, of the town council, said it could be the first project of its kind in the county.

He said: “If we can make an issue of this so it becomes countywide then great but at least we will be doing our best to make sure one of our children isn’t killed on the way to school.”

Mr Gregory hoped the schools and the town council could work closely with Newark and Sherwood district and Nottinghamshire county councils.

He said: “We hope we can get planning officers from the county council to help us. We want help, not hindrance, and we want to be told what we can do, not what we can’t.”

Mr Gregory said Westgate was one of the problem areas.

He said: “We have got to look at how we can make it safer there, and obviously there are issues at Lowe’s Wong.

“If we can keep children off the road by directing them other ways and everybody pulls together to come up with ideas I really think we can make this work.

“The main thing we need to do is talk to people.

“We don’t want to impose things, and we would never do that but, by communicating and listening to people’s opinions, hopefully we can find some better routes to the schools.”

Mr Gregory said they were working with staff and pupils from the Minster School but hoped to work with other schools in the future.

He said: “We want to consult and we want to make sure everybody is happy with it.”

Mr Gregory said students from the Minster School had told him few of them cycled to school because their parents were concerned about the safety of the roads.

He said: “I want to try and encourage people to use their bikes because of the health and fitness side of things and if we can provide safe cycling routes as well as safe walking routes, it would probably be a bonus.

“There are facilities at the Minster for many bikes but they are probably getting less than ten pupils cycling to school.”