This is an update of the current progress made and time scales we can expect on the current situation with the yellow lines at our school.
Below is a copy of an email sent on the 02.02.10 to Linda Stevenson, Staff Development Manager in Stirling Council.
Included were Darren Ryan of the Roads Department of Stirling Council and the full Parent Council of Strathblane Primary School and Head Teacher Sandra Logan.
Linda thank you for taking the time to listen today and to Darren thank you for calling back and explaining in more detail the times scales and process required in helping to make our school gates a safer place.
Darren Ryan advised the ‘SCHOOL KEEP CLEAR’ zig zags are currently covered with a Traffic regulation Order therefore for them to be removed this order will have to be revoked and a new order made to allow roads to move the zig zags to correspond with new position of the access.
Roads will commence work on the alteration required to the Traffic Regulation Order in the near future, however this will take some time as we will have to go through a statutory legal process.
Darren has gone on to explain that the consultation process has not yet started but will commence with a letter which will be sent out to various groups and individuals concerned within 2 weeks time. He has also not yet decided the combination of lines and zig zags.
We can then expect a 3 week wait for responses to this letter.
There is also a funding issue with the work being carried out, as the department has spent the budget and may have to find funding from elsewhere if the work is to be carried out before April 2010. There is a 60% chance that this may happen.
Darren advised if not then, the work would 100% be carried out after April 2010.
Following on in the process Darren is required to advertise the Traffic Regulation Order and the planned changes to the yellow lines in the local press at cost of around £250 and would take 3 more weeks for any objections to be logged.
The labour and materials cost would be added and that has not yet been priced.
After the advertising period there would be 1 week for the legal team in Stirling Council to sign off the work, and a further 6 week period for the order to become law.
So, even if the letter went out tomorrow, and the funding was found we can not expect the yellow lines to be in place before the 18th of May 2010.
Darren has advised that it would most likely have been someone in the children’s services department of the facilities management section that had the school gates moved in the first place around 18 months ago. That they should have, but did not communicate with the roads department of the changes made, and that they were only made aware of this situation a few weeks ago.
As a learning point for the future it would be good to know if the process of communication from one department of the council and another has been improved or if there is a more serious issue around communication that needs to be addressed.
I would like to know what actions have been taken, in order that this not occur in the future or if as part of Stirling Council’s rural community we can expect this to be the way it is.
Kind regards
Vivienne Mackay
Parent Council member