Morning All I am looking for your opinions and advice please. Our local council is considering closing one of the primary schools and moving the pupils to an already over subscribed school nearby and using portacabins in addition to the portacabins already in place. There have been lots of local objections and I have been asked to look into arguments that can be raised from a safety perspective. The first one that springs to mind is safe access and egress to and from the school. I do not see this being a huge issues actually getting into the school from the playground (apart from emergency evacuation when all the pupils are in one place i.e. lunch hall and school assembly etc but that is another argument!). My main area of concern is the access road to the school which is already very busy during the morning and afternoons when parents drop off and pick up. This will only increase the volume of traffic through an already narrow road. Do you think the school and therefore the council has a duty of care for safe access outwith the school gates? There is also the issue of access for the emergency services during these busy periods. Any thoughts and opinions would be most welcome. R

This is not really an occupational safety issue but a public safety issue. The Council will have a responsibility to mitigate the risk to school children from road traffic by appropriate means, i.e. the erection of barriers to separate them from the hazard in the immediate area of the school exit and by providing school crossing patrols. The parents/guardians clearly have responsibility for the children once they are outside the school gates. No doubt the school could assist by phasing the exit of the children but they don't have a legal responsibility to do so.

I agree that a key goal should be getting parents and kids out of cars - healthy, environmentally sound, avoids traffic hazards and considerable nuisance to nearby residents and those who do walk. But something worries me. You say "There have been lots of local objections and I have been asked to look into arguments that can be raised from a safety perspective" Does that not mean that you are looking to find fault, and then dress it up as a safety concern? That is surely not the correct approach since it lacks both objectivity and credibility.

Yes. Local Authorities have transport and infrastructure policies including initiatives such as "safer routes to school". The traffic management issues arising should be part of the overall business case and business plan and it is only right and proper that the public challenge this aspect through the proper channels. Not occupational health and safety per se, but certainly road safety. Local Police should be party to these decisions, planning applications etc. and there are various avenues avialable for debate and redress via public meetings, planning objections etc. I'd be extremely wary of getting dragged into this sort of thing in a professional capacity. The often selfish actions of drivers dropping of the kids who park on zig-zags, block streets by double parking etc. are more universal problems, only exacerbated by the relative size of the School roll. I personally am quite appalled by the number of adults who drive their children to a school which is well within reasonable walking distance. Given the marked drop in traffic volume during holiday periods, it is quite apparent that most of these trips are exclusively associated with taxiing kids to school. Rant over.