Crossing guide petition hits 100 signatures in just three days

Concerned mother-of-two Linda Scott launched the petition after the area was left without a crossing warden.

She is calling for a road crossing assistant on Sleigh Drive/Lochend Road – and has already received widespread backing from other concerned parents.

Mrs Scott, 42, said there had been no crossing assistant on the spot since August last year when the previous lollipop man stepped down from his role.

The full-time mum said both her sons have to cross the busy road to get to and from school every day and parents were “up in arms” about the lack of assistance for their children.

Mrs Scott said she contacted the council before Christmas to ask why no-one had replaced the previous crossing guide and was told that there had been just one response to the job advert.

She said: “You have to look four ways before crossing the road because there’s four ways that the traffic can come – it’s an accident waiting to happen. It is really dangerous.”

The road is used by pupils travelling to and from several schools in the area, including St Ninian’s RC Primary, Hermitage Park Primary, where Mrs Scott’s eight-year-old son Ethan is a pupil, and Leith Academy, which her oldest son, Ciaran, 13, attends.

Mrs Scott added: “There’s another lollipop man down the other end of the road when there’s not really any need for him because there’s a pedestrian crossing with a green man there.”

She said she reported a car registration number to police around October 2011 after the driver drove around the previous lollipop man while he was standing in the road and about to signal to children and their parents to cross.

She said: “He was quite shaken after that. I can see why hardly anybody has applied for the job because the cars don’t want to stop.

“I hope to God that it doesn’t take a child to be hit or killed before something is done. After the recent accidents with kids with crossings, surely this is an urgent matter.”

Mrs Scott plans to submit the petition, which currently has 102 signatures, to the city council later this month.

A spokeswoman for the city council said the authority is facing lollipop recruitment problems. She said: “We are actively looking to employ school crossing guides at a number of locations across the city. It can be difficult to fill these positions in some areas so we would encourage anyone who is interested in applying to contact us.”

Last April, the Evening News told how teachers and staff at Stewart’s Melville College were set to be asked to take on the role of lollipop men and women following a hit-and-run outside the school.

The news came just three weeks after 13-year-old pupil Max Dunnigan was hit by a car on his way to the school, leaving him with a broken leg. The driver of the vehicle failed to stop at the scene and has not been traced by police.

The council had been trying to recruit road crossing assistants in the area for several years, but local residents had shown no interest in the  positions.

A five-year-old girl was left in a critical condition after being knocked down at a zebra crossing outside Ferryhill Primary School last September.