School wants to keep supervised crossing

Woy Woy South Public School has called for a crossing supervisor to be retained when traffic lights are installed at the school crossing on Ocean Beach Rd later this year.

The school has been told the current supervisors will lose their jobs once the lights are installed.

School principal Mr Terry Greedy said he was concerned that the change would cause increased congestion along the road.

"The traffic lights will be operated by pushing a button on the light pole," Mr Greedy said.

"This will surely make travel by car down this road during peak periods in the morning and afternoon extremely slow as children press the button whenever they want to cross.

"At present, the ladies in charge of the crossing monitor traffic and hold children until there are a significant number of students ready to cross so that interruption to traffic flow is kept to a minimum.

"This will all change with control of the crossing in the hands of the pedestrians using the lights.

"Surely the sensible thing to do would be to retain the crossing ladies to control the lights during busy peak periods so that traffic flow is not significantly inconvenienced," Mr Greedy said.

Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) media officer Mr Ben Tracey said the RMS believed the new traffic light crossing would help to improve pedestrian safety in the area and would not cause any serious issues.

"The lights will be installed as part of a number of safety improvements identified through RMS safety audits after the decommissioning of the speed camera on Ocean Beach Rd at Woy Woy," Mr Tracey said.

"A decision to install traffic lights was made after extensive stakeholder consultation with Woy Woy South Public School and the community."

Mr Tracey said the replacement of the school crossing supervisor would not be an issue, as the traffic lights would sufficiently replace her services.

"There is no RMS requirement to have a school crossing supervisor in locations where traffic lights are in place.

"A school crossing supervisor will be in place two weeks after the traffic lights are installed to teach school children how to safely cross at traffic lights," Mr Tracey said.

The RMS plan to install the traffic lights later this year and inform the community before work starts.

Newsletter, 25 Jun 2013.

Terry Greedy, Woy Woy South Public School

Media statement, 4 July 2013

Ben Tracey, Roads and Maritime Services