By using that tone and suggesting that councillors are demanding something (which they are not) is unfortunately not at all helpful and in my opinion does not accurately represent the overall sentiment of the discussion that took place. It has also caused concern to the School.
The School are preparing a travel plan, which as I understand it is at a relatively early stage. One of the aims of which is to try and reduce congestion outside the school. Over a long period of time I have also been contacted by numerous parents regarding road safety issues on their route to school – not all of these are directly in the vicinity of the school but one of the issues raised was a speed limit of 20mph in streets near to the school to try and encourage more people to walk as part of the Walk to School Crocodile which I understand is part of the School's Travel Plan.
I had raised this with an Officer at the County Council who replied that " We can offer to support communities wishing to establish 20mph speed limit under the ‘Highways Your Way’ banner however this will require financial contribution from the local community/3rd party."
Hence I contacted the Parish Council to see if this would be something they would consider contributing towards financially. The Parish Council understandably asked about possible costs, which I passed on to them and was asked to attend their next meeting for it to be discussed further.
I attended the Parish Council meeting to find out whether or not in principle they would be interested in finding out more about what is in the School's travel plan and if needed to provide financial help towards it (including possibly towards the cost of a 20mph zone subject to the views of the school and local residents) as the County Council are not funding as much as they used to.
There was a discussion around the issue at the Parish Council meeting and some councillors seemed more interested than others in finding out more - concerns where raised about how a 20mph zone would be enforced for example whilst other councillors felt a reduction in the speed limit might encourage more families to walk.
But the conclusion was that I would arrange a joint meeting between the School and interested parties including a representative of the Parish Council to find out more about the Travel Plan and what if any help or support the Parish or County Council could give to it.
This meeting has provisionally been arranged for a date later in June and I hope the Parish Council can be updated about the situation at their next meeting.
