Holy Trinity and St John’s C.E. Primary School has installed new signs asking people to ‘think before they park’ after pupils on the Safety Ambassador scheme raised concerns and funds.
The Safety Ambassadors program was launched last year to empower pupils and Year 6 children are selected to be the school’s pupil voice.
As part of the program, the Safety Ambassadors meet weekly to learn about staying safe. They look at topics like how the school keeps pupils safe, what a healthy relationship is and road safety.
They are also able to meet and interview a number of adults, such as social workers, police, domestic abuse support staff, to learn how other agencies keep them safe.
Head teacher Rob Garratt said: “As a school with an amazingly diverse school community our Safety Ambassadors also help to ensure our school remains and inclusive space for all to reach their full potential.
“Last year’s safety ambassadors recognised that road safety is important for our school. They listened to parent concerns about parking at the start and end of school and decided they could help.
“They organised a cake sale to raise funds to purchase new road signs for outside of our school to remind everyone to “Think before they park” to avoid endangering the lives of the children and families coming to and from our school.”
Head pupils Piper and Claude said: “The way some of the cars park near our school is not safe. They block the crossing and we can’t get through when walking or on our bikes and scooters.
“With our new signs we are hoping everyone can ‘think before they park.’”
It’s great that the school have done this but it should not be necessary. Kent Council say that they want 20mph zones in all built up areas but they still refuse to do this for Ramsgate, Margate has one, many Villages have them but not Ramsgate!
Kent and Thanet Council have powers to manage vehicles that park across dropped kurbs, on pavements blocking pedestrians and other anti-social behaviours but they do not enforce very well.
Crash data shows parts of Ramsgate have a very high number of incidents for Kent and nationally but no action is taken.
The lack of action by authorities (including the Police) makes our streets less safe for everyone. But this impact is stronger for those people with mobility impairments and for those carers of young children (pushing prams and buggies into roads to get by vehicles on pavements). This means that all these public bodies are in breach of the legislation that aims to prevent people with “protected characteristics” from being affected more than other people.
It seems like Thanet Council have no interest in making the people of Ramsgate safe. It’s only Green Pty Cll’rs that make any noise about this. What are other Cllr’s doing?!
While I agree with a 20 mph speed limit, that still wouldn’t stop lazy parents parking inappropriately.
Maybe the answer is Red Lines outside every School and strictly enforced