Councillors and the community of Eliburn have dismissed a safety report carried out at Peel Primary which said there was no need for a pedestrian crossing.
A report to the Livingston North Local Area Committee was condemned by local members and the community council for ignoring accident details.
The school, community and local members have been pushing for safer crossings around the school for more than two years. Earlier this year they called for a new safety audit following an accident close to the school.
READ MORE: West Lothian pedestrian crossing will be upgraded after child knocked down outside school
This followed the proposals to install 17 new crossings on sites around West Lothian - though none of those are in north Livingston.
Steve Egan, Chair of Eliburn Community council told the latest committee “Eliburn community council has very little faith in this report. The fact that it did not mention the accident that the two councillors have mentioned.
“We would question the veracity of this report.”
In April, following an incident where a child was knocked down outside the school, Eliburn community council had described the situation as “an emergency.”
A subsequent audit carried out at the area around the schools however said "the recent five year accident history" has shown "no recorded injury accidents in the vicinity of the scheme". It went on to say: " Based on this independent road safety audit and the recent accident history, the request to provide a formal pedestrian crossing has not been progressed at this time."
The report had added: “The road safety audit was carried out on 18 August 2022 for the recent footway and crossing point scheme. This was carried out during the afternoon school peak period 1430-1515hrs and a night time audit was also carried out on the same day between 2130-2145hrs. The only road safety concern identified during these periods was a minor issue with the new bollards which is in the process of being rectified.”
Councillor Alison Adamson said: “It says there were no recorded injuries. I know there was one very high profile incident . When these audits are taking place would the people [compiling the audit] approach the school and ask for information?”
Speaking for the council’s roads department Ronnie Fisher said the report would only take note of accidents reported to the police.
Councillor Andrew Miller said the community council and the school had been pushing for crossings following the accident.
“We are in an era where community empowerment is a thing and quite rightly so. If we are really serious about community empowerment then we need to be dealing with this because the community is telling us this is what they want.
“It becomes difficult to trust the rest of the report when we know there have been injury incidents which are not mentioned.”
He added: “How do we progress this? It is not something that’s going to go away. Just to say that there’s no further action because there’s been no injuries is not going to wash.”
Mr Egan said that in addition to injuries there had been numerous near misses on roads around the school.
The community council had to lobby for a stretch of pavement to access the school grounds two years ago. The school sits amid housing on narrow roads.
Lead officer for the committee Greg Welsh told the meeting he would take the matter back to colleagues in education and added that he would look at how the contents of the report had been delivered.
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