A recruitment freeze on lollipop crossing patrol staff is forcing young children at a rural school into a “dangerous” crossing where a child was killed previously, a principal has warned.
Hezlett Primary School just outside Castlerock, Co Derry, sits beside a long, straight stretch of the Mussendun Road where principal Donna Winters said cars often travel around 60mph.
And with a bus stop on the far side of the road from the school, every day children are forced to make the crossing to get to their classrooms.
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Speaking to Belfast Live, Mrs Winters said there had already been a fatality on the road in the past.
A road crossing patrol officer had been in place for over 30 years but since the lollipop man stepped down in November, the school has been unable to find a replacement because of a freeze on recruitment by the cash-strapped Education Authority.
It was revealed last month that the recruitment of school crossing patrol staff is being frozen by the Education Authority as part of an effort to save money due to a squeeze on budgets.
Mrs Winters said: “We’re on the Mussendun Road just outside the village. It’s generally a 60 mile an hour road, although we do have 20 mile an hour warning lights which are on a timer. My issue with those is that they’re not reliable. But even when they are working, the number of cars that just ignore the sign and come flying through that.
“When we did have a crossing patrol man, he would have said on a weekly basis that a car had to come screeching to a stop because they were flying.
“There’s been a crossing patrol man here for over 30 years and there’s been a fatality on that road before. It was a long time ago but it did happen. There had been an accident and a child was killed on that road. It’s dangerous.”
Explaining the current situation, she added: “We have been without a crossing patrol man since the end of November. He handed in his notice and worked until the end of November, and I immediately went to EA to hire a replacement.
“EA came out to look at it, and I heard nothing back until just before Christmas. I was getting no feedback from EA so I took the law into my own hands and put an advert on the school Facebook page to ask if anyone would be interested in the position. We got a lovely local gentleman who was doing it basically voluntarily, hoping that he would get the job when it became official.
He took on the role for about a month but at that point I had been conversing with EA and I discovered that there wasn’t going to be a recruitment process.”
A spokesperson for the Education Authority said: "Due to the significant financial pressures in education, EA has been required to deliver substantial savings by March 31 and so made the difficult decision to pause recruitment of some central budget funded posts.
"This included the recruitment of additional or replacement School Crossing Patrols and schools were made aware of this decision last month.
"The EA continues to engage with the Department of Education and political representatives regarding the financial challenges facing education and this decision will be reviewed subject to the resources made available in 2023/24. School Crossing Patrols however are not a statutory duty of the EA and parents are primarily responsible for getting their child to school safely."
"Our team of School Crossing Patrols will however continue to provide support to over 350 schools across Northern Ireland and we would encourage all parents to follow the road safety guidance available at NI Direct.”
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