Primary school pupils take action over number of people being hurt on Cambridgeshire’s roads
Hundreds of people have been badly hurt on Cambridgeshire’s roads – and pupils at one Cambridge school have had enough.
Young people at Milton Road Primary School staged a day of action after learning that 645 people have been badly hurt while walking or cycling in the county over the past six years.
The event, which coincided with the national RoadPeace Challenge Week, was related to an ongoing road safety campaign led by the school’s eco-citizens whose job is to listen to the school community and help solve problems.
The eco-citizens began organising a campaign in February in response to numerous calls for a safer environment around the school gate.
Children created awareness posters and parents shared video footage of their journeys to school.
The eco-citizens also carried out regular surveys to identify how the mode of transport affects how safe people feel on the school run.
The community’s message was clear: families do not feel safe enough on their journeys to school along the crowded road space.
The eco-citizens arranged chalked road markings around a key junction outside the school and created a series of short films to demonstrate the road safety problems in response.
This was shared with the school in an assembly which was attended by Cllr Alex Beckett, chair of Cambridgeshire County Council’s highways and transport committee, as well as local councillors Richard Swift and Rachel Wade.
In conversation with Cllr Beckett, headteacher Rachel Snape called on the authorities to prioritise the safety of children and their families.
She explained the school has 480 people arriving on foot, by bike or by scooter and about 40 cars between 8.40am and 8.55am, but there is insufficient space. She said the community needs support to minimise conflict between cars and people walking, cycling and scooting.
Throughout the day, the number 645 featured as a reminder of the families who have been affected by serious collisions.
The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Vision Zero Partnership has a target to halve the number of road deaths and serious injuries on roads, cycleways and footways in the region by 2030, and to eliminate them by 2040 but is missing its targets.
One parent said: “Hundreds of children travel on foot, by bike or by scooter on the daily school run, so I can’t understand why safeguarding them isn’t a priority.”
Milton Road’s eco-citizens now plan to explore options for the streets around their school at drop off and pick up time with a view to asking the councillors to commit to change.
The eco-citizens were established when Milton Road Primary became a member of the Citizens UK organising committee.
