PARENTS and councillors have expressed frustration at delays over road safety measures outside one of the borough’s newest primary schools.
Last year, more than 500 people signed a petition calling for improvements to be installed on William Heelas Way, the home of Floreat Montague Park School.
The petition asked for 20mph road markings, and barriers lining the school pavement and the crossing in the Montague Park estate, and was presented to the council in September.
The estate has been built around a new distributor road for Wokingham, and some fear that vehicles travelling too fast would cause an accident to children going to school.
At last week’s full council meeting, Heather Murray, a resident in the estate since 2016 and parent of two, asked a question calling for the works to be actioned.
This resulted in a debate being brought forward so it could be discussed along with an answer from the executive member for active travel, highways and transport, Cllr Paul Fishwick.
Following the debate, the council agreed to send the scheme to review by the highway safety improvements pool with a vote of 26-25.
This decision has been criticised by Mrs Murray and Cllr Charles Margetts, a Conservative councillor for Finchampstead North, who have accused the administration of stalling the process.
Cllr Margetts, who also serves as the shadow executive for highways, said: “We are really disappointed that the Liberal-led coalition voted to road block vital safety improvements outside Floreat Montague primary school.
“The Liberal-led coalition decided to vote against a Conservative motion calling for these steps to be implemented immediately.
“Instead they chose to move this scheme into the highways improvement pool, 10% of schemes in this pool have been completed in the last five years.”
Mrs Murray said she felt “demoralised” following the meeting and fears there is no desire to implement the points made in the petition.
“I used the constitution to get the motion up the agenda, because they weren’t gonna do it and kept getting kicked into the long grass,” she said.
“I felt really intimidated and the discussion that followed (the motion) was frankly brutal, political and shameful.
“I do not believe that they have any inclination or desire to make any of the petition requests that have been specified.”
Mrs Murray believes there has been “a precedent set” by previous work, which is why she is pushing the issue as hard as she can.
She said: “Our previous ward councillor had got David Wilson Homes to put a crossing where we’ve asked for the crossing to go. The paint has now gone, so we just need another crossing there because it’s a really pivotal point where children cross to go to school.
“There were speed bumps before which have been ripped up and not replaced. I appreciate the 20mph speed restriction during school hours, but it’s just not enough.
“I have just lost complete faith and I think the residents have lost complete faith. I just do not see any evidence that they are really going to consider what the petition calls for.”
Cllr Fishwick said the petition was being considered as part of the normal process and is subject to the same protocol as other requests for road safety improvements.
“Each scheme must be assessed to determine these benefits as a level playing field and not on the basis of who shouts loudest,” he said.
