Funding for school lollipop patrols to be axed by cash-strapped council

Dozens of schools across Rochdale are to see funding for lollipop men and women axed in order save the cash-strapped council further money.

Cabinet members have voted to cut financial support for the service from 35 primary and secondary schools in a behind-closed-doors meeting.

Schools hit by the plans are those whose road safety risk has been assessed as low by highways chiefs.

Each of the schools' financial resources have also been assessed as part of the decision, but they will now have to stump up £4,000 per year if they want the council to continue with the service or provide the crossing patrol themselves.

The council says schools have been informally notified of the decision, but refused to release a full list of those affected, as the process is within a 10-day call-in period.

It says changes could potentially be made to the plans during this time.

Formal letters will be sent to headteachers on March 14 and council minutes say the cut will come into force from April.

This would give schools less than three weeks to make alternative arrangements if they do not wish to continue with the authority’s service.

A council spokesman said: “The council will be writing to school headteachers to inform them of the cabinet decision once the ten day call-in period has passed.”

However, one school known to be losing funding for its crossing patrol is Norden Community Primary School, on Shawfield Lane.

The school has already been without its lollipop man since September when, parents say, he retired but was not replaced.

The overwhelming consensus among parents at the school gates is that the school needs a crossing patrol to keep their children safe.

Mum Kayleigh Berry said: “It’s so dangerous we really need one.

“Right outside the front its very dangerous, it happens all the time where people stop and park and queue all the way up – it’s horrendous. All the kids come rushing out, and it’s a blind bend so it’s dangerous.”

Becky Jones agreed pupils were at risk while trying to get to school. She said: “The amount of times we’ve nearly been run over on the main road is mad.”

Their views were echoed by Ashley Hayle who said: “We need a lollipop man. We had one last year, but they haven’t been able to replace our old one. They shouldn’t be cutting them because it really is needed.”

Iffat Ahsan added: “I think there should be a lollipop man here, especially when there’s so many kids crossing the road. We stop but not everybody stops. It’s always busy at school time, and especially bad in the morning because everybody is rushing to drop their kids.

“If there is too much traffic here, residents will complain as well but we can’t help it because we have to drop our kids here.”

Joanne Nixon says she has resorted to standing in the middle of the road in a yellow coat to make sure children are safe.

However, Marie Cosby said: “I think it’s not necessarily the issue of not having a lollipop man, it’s other cars just not being considerate. In this area it’s bad enough, but if it’s a busy road you’ve got no chance.”

She continued: “There is an advantage of having a lollipop man as it means people don’t park in funny places and people do stop, but I wouldn’t trust my daughter just walking down the road and hoping that a car would stop for her. We only live nearby, and people do drive very fast so it’s a little bit unnerving.

Councillor James Gartside, who is a governor at the school, also disagreed that pupils at Norden Primary – who number more than 400 – were not at risk while crossing the road.

He said: “There have been quite a few narrow escapes there, I would not say the risk was low.

“It’s not a main road, but it’s on a hill and people are not quite so sensible as you might imagine when children are around.”

He said that he particularly disagreed with pulling funding for patrols at primary schools, where pupils may not have developed the same ‘road sense’ as older children.

Councillor Gartside added that alternatives to using the council service would pose financial and practical problems.

He said pedestrian crossings would cost ‘a huge amount of money’ – and traffic volumes may mean the site does not qualify for installation anyway.

If the school chooses to run its own service, staff would need to be trained ahead of April 1, and there could be difficulties covering the role in the event of absences.

Councillor Gartside added: “I think the council should do it, maybe schools could contribute to that but it’s a big burden on schools to find they have to fund school crossing patrols.

“Regarding Norden, the council should maybe have a contribution from the school, but no more than that.”

Councillor Peter Winkler – a governor at Norden Community Primary – echoed some of Councillor Gartside’s concerns.

He said: “To fund that we would have to work that into the school budget, because from a school perspective – and pupil safety perspective – we would always want children to be safe crossing the road to get to school.”

Councillor Winkler – also a governor at Caldershaw Primary School – added: “I think it’s unfortunate it’s been put on to the schools, obviously there is a big financial commitment but personally I think the safety of children is the paramount thing.”

Councillor Kieran Heakin, cabinet member for children’s services said the move had to be viewed in the context of the bigger financial picture.

He said: “It’s unfortunate, but since 2010 we’ve had to lose nearly £200m as an authority; we had to make lots of cuts to children’s services – £37m since 2010.

“We are used to making cuts unfortunately and we are now having to make some difficult, tricky decisions.

“We are passing on responsibility for school crossing patrols – we are not cutting any – but it will be up to governors to decide if they want to continue with them or not.”

Councillor Heakin added that £4,000 was not ‘mega-bucks’ for schools to find, given the size of their budgets and reserves.

He continued: “Governors have a right to express their opinion, and we respect them, but they have to look at the bigger picture.

“Schools have not suffered many cuts since 2010, all schools in Rochdale had an increase last year, and it should be similar this year in the April budget – the majority of schools will have an increase on previous years.”

Nick Statham, Local Democracy Reporter and Hannah Dawson