Mother wins fight for Whitelands Park School lollipop crossing

The news came after Jennifer Hudson, the parent of a pupil at Whitelands Park Primary School, worked with West Berkshire councillor Keith Woodhams (Lib Dem, Thatcham West) at the end of last year to collect more than 540 signatures on a petition campaigning to improve safety, after her five-year-old daughter, Jocelyn, was almost knocked over as they walked to the school in Sagecroft Road.
The campaign called for the speed limit outside the school to be reduced from 30mph to 20mph, for a lollipop person to be employed, waiting restrictions and school warning signs.
West Berkshire Council has agreed to a school crossing officer, and to install waiting restrictions outside the school and warning signs on Northfield Road.
However, it refused to lower the speed limit, saying that it was not the policy to introduce 20mph zones outside schools.
Mrs Hudson thanked all the people involved in the campaign, including Mr Woodhams, the school, the district council and residents.
She said: “It’s fantastic. A lot of hard work has gone into this.
“We want to get the changes put in sooner rather than later.
“Anything is possible, if you just keep going.”
She added that she and Mr Woodhams would monitor traffic coming from neighbouring Northfield Road and if they still thought a 20mph was needed, they would push again for it.
Mr Woodhams said: “It’s fantastic news. We will be monitoring it very closely to see what difference the parking restrictions make.
“If we feel more needs to be done, we will push really hard.”
This, he said, included getting the speed limit lowered, adding: “It only takes one car doing more than 30mph to drive thorough the area and not be able to stop, and that’s the life of a child gone.”
Mr Woodhams said that the new safety measures were to come into force as soon as the warning signs had been installed and a crossing patrol officer hired.