President of the Parents and Citizen (P&C), Debbie Fenton said there was a close call at the site last year after a seven-year-old child was hit by a car when crossing Melanie Street on their way home from school.
She said they have been calling for the installation of a pedestrian crossing for the past five years, adding that the school’s previous principal Linda Wickham first asked the former Bankstown Council to address the issue in 2013.
“We can’t afford to wait until a larger tragedy occurs to take action,” she said.
Linda Wickham
“The proposed crossing at Melanie Street is an important initiative driven by our school and the P&C have been strongly advocating this project for quite some time to ensure our students safety.
“The crossing will service a great number of our families who access our school via the back entrance so they arrive safely.”
Supporting the P&C’s call, State MP for Bankstown, Tania Mihailuk, said renovations which included relocating the front office and main entrance to Melanie Street, were also likely to see an increase in the number of students using the entrance.
She was also critical of a recommendation against a crossing to the Canterbury Bankstown Council’s April Traffic Committee meeting which was based on that traffic study conducted on the second last school day of 2018, when a number of students were absent.
Requesting a deferral for an onsite meeting, Ms Mihailuk said Canterbury-Bankstown Council and Roads and Maritime Service should not be waiting for a tragedy to occur “before they spring into action”.
“Let’s end the ridiculous red tape and install a crossing,” she said.
