Road safety calls around East Sussex primary school will not move ahead, petitioners hear

On Monday (February 16), Cllr Claire Dowling, East Sussex County Council’s lead member for transport and environment, considered a petition connected to concerns around the safety of pupils attending Chyngton Primary School in Millberg Road.

The petition had called on the county council both to install a zebra crossing in either Hillside Avenue or Walmer Road and to set up some form of School Streets scheme in the area.

In a report, council officers had said Cllr Dowling should inform the petitioners that neither element would be taken forward at this time.

Officers said the installation of a zebra crossing in Hillside Avenue had been assessed through the council’s prioritisation process but had not met the benchmark score necessary to move ahead.

In coming to this conclusion, officers had noted how data from Sussex Police showed there had been no serious crashes in the area for the past three years.

But this conclusion saw criticism from Becky Francomb, the area’s district councillor, who attended the meeting as a representative for the petitioners.

Cllr Francomb (Green) said: “Many residents have expressed their frustration to me. I know it is a difficult one; we have to prioritise. But the council’s position appears to be that we have to wait until we have an accident before action is taken.

“A lot of people are saying — and this is not just families with children, this is [also] people with mobility issues — that they struggle to cross the road and feel cut off from the park and the shops and school and other amenities.

“Whilst it is easy to measure accidents, it is quite difficult to measure the impact on people’s independence, health and wellbeing.”

Similar concerns were shared by Sam Adeniji, the area’s county councillor, who said: “It does give the impression that unless there is a serious accident things are not likely to change.

“I do believe that we should not be waiting for an incident before acting.”

Cllr Adeniji (Reform UK) also said he was ‘disappointed, but not surprised’ by the council’s conclusion.

For their part, officers disputed the argument. They said the assessment of the scheme had been undertaken under a new set of criteria included within the recently-adopted East Sussex Local Transport Plan 4 (LTP4).

These criteria, officers said, were significantly different from those considered previously, taking into account active travel and favouring schemes which encourage people out of cars.

Crash data only formed a small part of the new considerations, officers said.

Officers also highlighted how the council could not yet commit to implementing a School Streets scheme in the area. Such a scheme could see traffic restrictions placed on roads nearby the school at pick up and drop off times (i.e the beginning and end of the school day).

The council has piloted such schemes in the recent past and is currently in the process of developing a framework for testing if other areas would be suitable.

Once this framework is in place, officers said, an assessment of all schools in the county will be undertaken. If a school is judged suitable to become a School Street school, a road safety audit will take place as part of subsequent design process.