Polmont parents launch petition for pelican crossing to ensure safe route to school for children

Parents of pupils at St Margaret’s Primary School are concerned for their children’s safety on Salmon Inn Road after Falkirk Council has been unable to provide continuous crossing patrol cover on the busy stretch of road in recent months.

In March parents were informed there would be no crossing patrol going forward as the council were withdrawing the position as they could not continue to provide cover due to long-term absences, vacant positions and emergency cover being required at other school crossing points throughout the area.

There had been no crossing patrol in place since the Easter holidays until Monday of this week, when the local authority reinstated the position.

The news was met with some relief, but further concerns were raised as the information received by parents said the council could not guarantee to continue to provide cover and it “will be subject to review and removal at short notice depending on staff absence at other points, based on scoring criteria".

Some parents, who feel this is an “unacceptable risk” to their children’s safety, have now created an online petition calling for a pelican crossing to be installed on Salmon Inn Road which would provide families with a permanent safe route to walk to school should the crossing patrol be stopped again.

Connie Bennett, one of the group behind the petition, explained: “We are all concerned about safety on that road. It’s really dangerous as cars often travel much faster than the 30mph speed limit.

"Even when there is a crossing person there I have seen cars go around them. Parents crossing their children without a crossing person there are finding it difficult to get a space in the traffic to cross safely.

"We think a pelican crossing with the button that you press would force cars to slow down and also means that when the council can’t provide cover there is still a safe way for children to cross the road. It’s not just schoolchildren, people using using the doctors and library also find it difficult to cross that road. It is a very busy road, especially at the peak times of school pick up and drop off.”

Parents have also spoken about concerns following reports on social media of a couple of “near misses” on the stretch when there has been no crossing patrol.

Connie continued: "We want to encourage people to be walking to school, and older children to walk independently, but you can’t do that if they can’t cross safely. A lot of us live close by but feel there’s just not a safe route if there’s no crossing patrol. A pelican crossing would mean there would always be a safe way to cross.”

The petition was started earlier this week and has already collected more than 500 signatures. The parents intend to present the petition to Falkirk Council in due course.

A Falkirk Council spokesperson said: “We have a long term staff absence at this location which we were able to cover until Easter, but it had to be withdrawn as we had further staff shortages. We are now reinstating cover at this point and hope to have it permanently staffed after the summer.”​​​​​​​

To sign the petition, visit https://chng.it/J9SzPHrkhC