Good news on St Joseph’s and Victoria Park primaries school crossing patroller #dundeewestend

Residents will recall my update in September expressing concern about the proposal to decommission the school crossing patroller point in City Road at Milnbank Gardens – something I, parents and carers felt would be seriously detrimental to the Victoria Park PS and St Joseph’s RC PS pupils crossing here and completely unacceptable.

I had made clear to the City Council my strong objection to any such proposal and I am pleased to say that this – and the objections of parents and carers – has led to a rethink and it has been agreed to pause the process until the end of May 2022 and seek a replacement school crossing patroller meantime.

It is not necessarily a permanent reprieve but helpful meantime.

I will continue to oppose any moves to remove this school crossing patroller in the future should the matter be revisited.

The Head Teachers are today issuing a letter to parents and carers as follows :

“Decommission School Crossing patroller point – City Road at Milnbank Gardens

I refer to my letter dated 10 November regarding the above subject. Children and Families Service has now completed the consultation stage of the proposal to decommission the above point. There has been one response received from a parent/ carer of pupils attending West End Campus Primary Schools in regards to decommissioning this point. After due consideration it was concluded that although this point has not met the ROSPA/Road Safety GB criteria both in May 2021 and September 2021 we shall put on hold the decommissioning process at this stage.

It should be noted the feedback from the parent commented that the current position of the school crossing patroller point is not situated where the parents /children are crossing. Tayside Contracts has carried out a risk assessment of City Road and have situated the school crossing patroller at an appropriate point on the road which is a safe location. The position that parents wish the point to be situated is at the end of Scott Street which has been risk assessed as not suitable.

The point is currently vacant, Tayside Contracts will attempt to populate the point on a temporary basis from January until the end of May 2022. If at this stage the point is assessed and meets the criteria Tayside

Contracts will appoint a permanent school crossing patroller, if the point does not meet the criteria for a third time then we will commence the decommission process again.

When the post has been repopulated we would encourage parents and young people to use the school crossing point to ensure that the point meets the criteria when it is reassessed. Children and Families and Tayside Contracts Officers will work with members of the parent council to support this process.”

The school crossing patroller post is presently vacant and please see the image advertising the vacancy.