Glasgow council says lollipop person shouldn’t be employed at ‘horrific’ West End junction

Almost 1,500 people backed a petition from mum-of-two Linda Tait which urged the council to introduce a lollipop crossing service.

She wants the junction of Crow Road at Whittingehame Drive to be made safer for local school children.

A pedestrian survey found the location meets the criteria for a lollipop service but officials claimed a council policy “not to establish a new school crossing patrol where there is a light controlled pedestrian crossing” supersedes the findings.

Councillors can call for further action when they meet to discuss the record petition on Thursday, but staff have recommended a “new school crossing patroller is not provided.”

Instead, they have said they will engage with nearby schools on “more appropriate solutions.”

Campaigners had raised concerns over Crow Road following the death of an 18-year-old who was struck by a car in September last year.

However, the council report stated: “Clearly all loss of life in road accidents is regrettable, but neither presence nor absence of a school crossing patrol at the junction would have made any difference to an accident occurring shortly after midnight at a location more than 100 metres north of this junction.”

It added Police Scotland has “not recorded any injury related accidents involving a pedestrian within the vicinity of this junction in the last 10 years”.

Speed survey results “did not meet the criteria for Police Scotland to undertake any planned enforcement,” officials said.

The report added recent improvements have “reduced the wait time for pedestrians by altering the cycle time for the green man from 144 seconds to 72 seconds” and a request has been made for a half yellow box junction on Crow Road to “deter queueing traffic covering Whittinghame Drive.”

Ms Tait, 47, believes the proposed solutions do “nothing for pedestrians”.

“It’s putting vehicles at the top of the hierarchy,” she said. “We’re the fourth family to push for this, it’s a horrific road.”

Her petition racked up the most signatures of any listed on the council website and she said: “The residents of Glasgow have spoken, the council needs to listen.

“My daughter was nearly knocked down a few weeks ago because cars were blocking the crossing and we had to weave in and out.”

The mum, who lives at Claythorn, said there is a “race track mentality” and is saddened that it is dangerous for children to cycle to school.

“They need to have the confidence they have a safe route to school.”

She added. “I’m hoping the councillors take a different approach. We’re fed up, there’s going to be a serious incident.”

Councillor Jill Brown, Labour, said she had seen “video evidence of cars regularly going through red lights”. These “are the same lights that council officers are relying on as the reason a lollipop person isn’t needed”.

She is “really concerned” that the criteria for a lollipop person is “there needs to have been accidents.”

Councillor Brown continued: “I can think of several locations in the city where lollipop people are positioned close by crossing lights.”

Eunis Jassemi, the Labour candidate for Victoria Park, added there is “real frustration” over the “lack of urgency from the council to take meaningful action”.

He called for a “serious rethink” to prevent incidents in the area.