New school crossing in Whitnash thanks to mums

Amy Ashby and Anne Buttrum were the driving force behind a campaign to have a lollipop crossing put in place in Landor Road near the junction of Ashford Road which will serve pupils and parents at St Joseph’s, Briar Hill and St Margaret’s schools.

And since the end of last month George Hamilton has been at the crossing to help people on school mornings from 8.10am to 8.55am and in the afternoon from 3.15pm to 3.45pm.

Mrs Ashby said: “When our sons where aged ten and in year 5 at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School they were desperate to walk to school independently but we didn’t think the route was safe enough.

“We started a petition in June 2014 to determine the local support and we were overwhelmed with the number of signatures, which was more than 1,600 both online and on paper.

“This might encourage others to start their own lollipop campaign in other areas - it was hard work and took a long time, but it is definitely very worth it.”

Warwickshire County Council confirmed the site would be suitable for the crossing last November and the mothers and their children presented the petition to the authority in December.

A long recruitment process followed.

All the schools involved promoted the vacancy and the two mothers delivered flyers and distributed posters to shops and put them up on notice boards.

The crossing is usually used by between 19 and 27 people each day but the highest number so far has been 42.

Mrs Ashby said: “We are often reminded by the council that this is a ‘use it or lose it’ service and so we want to promote the crossing as much as possible.”