'Urgent action' needed for school road safety - MP

An MP has called for "urgent action" to improve road safety outside schools as she felt children were at serious risk every day.

Jenny Riddell-Carpenter, Labour MP for Suffolk Coastal, has started a petition asking government to urge Suffolk County Council to put together a tailored road safety plan for every school.

The MP said she was "shocked" and "really touched" to hear children bring up this issue themselves during her school visits.

The county council said it took road safety education "very seriously".

"I visited schools across my constituency and I was really shocked that one of the things most of the children wanted to talk about in the rural primary schools was road safety," said Riddell-Carpenter.

"Naturally parents and teachers are concerned too, but it was hearing stories from the children and the genuine anxiety they had because they felt the roads around their primary schools weren't safe."

Riddell-Carpenter said the tailored road safety plans would outline measures such as 20mph speed limits, appropriate crossings, enforcement and walking routes.

The petition will run until the first week of September before being presented to Parliament.

Riddell-Carpenter said the petition was part of her plan to launch a national campaign later in the year seeking tighter laws surrounding road safety at schools.

The council said it was already reviewing its criteria around approving the introduction of more 20mph speed limits outside schools, with a report due by the end of the year, reports the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Rachael Rudge, head teacher of Bucklesham Primary near Ipswich, said her school sat on a junction of two roads of 30mph and 60mph.

"Many of our parents have to park on the 60mph road on our boundary and cross that road to drop their child off. We have no safety barrier at our main pedestrian gate," she said

While the school has had no incidents involving a pupil, Ms Rudge said there had been some near misses with parents.

The council said it would support schools on an individual basis "as necessary and within the resources available".

A spokesperson said for over 20 years it had also run the successful Junior Road Safety Officer programme which was "an effective way to maximise the delivery of road safety awareness through peer-to-peer education from young people who know their local area".

The programme is open to all primary schools and in the past year 61 schools had participated.