Sandwell Council’s Road Safety team held a series of events at St. Matthews CE Primary School in Windmill Lane, Smethwick to encourage pupils and their parents to use crossings safely.
St Matthews is a split-site school based on either side of Windmill Lane with a zebra crossing right outside the school that aids access to both sites. Concerns had been raised that some people were not always using the crossing facility so the road safety team delivered assemblies throughout the school, In addition, the children were asked to create eye-catching banners that would encourage everyone to always use the zebra when crossing Windmill Lane for the safety of everyone.
Councillor Zahoor Ahmed, Sandwell Council’s cabinet member for environment services, said: “It’s great to see the children really engage and come up with some fabulous designs. Road safety is an absolute priority for the council and the schools sessions to teach children how to be safe on the roads are a huge part of this.”
Head teacher, Fiona Deakin, said; “The safety of pupils at St Matthew's is our highest priority and we value the important work of the Road Safety team. We're delighted with the winning entries and look forward to having the banners proudly displayed on Windmill Lane."
A quarter of Sandwell’s road network now has 20mph zones including outside the school on Windmill Lane and there has been an increase in traffic calming measures thanks to the Council’s evidence-based Road Plan. In addition, Sandwell Council is listening to local communities and has allocated a further £50k of investment to fund some community requests for traffic calming measures where the community feels they are needed when they don’t quite meet the usual benchmarks.
Sandwell Council’s Road Safety team has helped reduce casualties in the borough by 16% from 2017 to 2019. There was a reduction in casualties in all areas and significantly the number of child accident/casualties was reduced by 30%.