Sometimes we can get caught up in the big issues and forget about the small every day reasons we get interested and involved in politics. Our position in Europe has been the big story nationally this week, but locally in Essex we have seen a schoolboy killed and a schoolgirl seriously injured outside schools this month.
The branches of the local party are mobilising as any incident on our roads is one too many but a fatality is just terrible news. Local campaigner Chris Butler has set up an online petition for anyone to sign to get Essex County Council to debate Safer School Crossings at a meeting on December 13. Please do sign the petition.
Liberal Democrat Cllr Anne Turrell is leading this campaign but we need 8,000 signatures before November 25 to ensure that this debate does happen then.
With the economic downturn even hitting such positions as lollypop men and women then we have to ensure the safety of children walking to and from school.
I’m no economist but doing some research on traffic hot spots and dangerous roads will not break the bank and nor will setting up zebra crossings in these places where these traffic hot spots are near schools. Even if they did we have to find a way to make this happen because when all is said and done what is the price of the safe passage of our children to and from school every day?
Whilst it might not be easy to influence the big details of politics from the grassroots, one thing we can do is fully throw ourselves behind campaigns such as this. These are the reasons we got into politics – to make our local communities a safer and better environment to live in.
8,000 signatures seems like a lot but when all you are doing is putting your name to a petition to debate the current standard of pedestrian crossings outside schools then you start to think it is very much doable. So I implore you to sign this petition and get back to working on the small things that make our communities safer and better. If we can continue to fight for and help sort out the small things then the big things will get sorted in time.
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2 Comments
So in Essex there is a Conservative council slashing school crossing patrols and a Lib Dem opposition standing up for children’s safety.
Funnily enough in my local borough we have a Lib Dem council slashing school crossing patrols and a Conservative opposition standing up for children’s safety.
That’s politics for you.
Let’s have a reality check here. Lollipop ladies are among the lowest paid people in the country. The amount saved by cutting crossing patrols is minuscule (in the case of my borough, less than 0.02% of the budget). Any one of us could probably walk into our local council’s chief executive’s office and within ten minutes identify efficiency savings of a far greater scale that would not impact on front-line services at all. Cuts to school crossing patrols are totally unjustified, and politicians of all parties should be opposing them everywhere they are proposed – not just where it is politically expedient to do so.
Aye it’s a fair point. These things run both ways depending on which side of the fence you lie. School crossing patrols are a pittance but they do directly relate to the safety of school children. I’m no bright politician but for the reigning council to not even want a debate on this unless the petition gets the required amount of signatures baffles me. I know money is tight but when push comes to shove surely children’s safety should be one of the top priorities (and that go’s for all parties/councils).