\n Sandwell Council plans to scrap five vacant school crossing positions and replace them with the fixed crossings in a bid to save money.\n<\/p>\n
\n The plan, which forms part of the Labour-run authority\u2019s budget proposals for the coming year, would save \u00a325,000 a year from its revenue \u2018day-to-day\u2019 budget.\n<\/p>\n
\n The council said there were nine school crossing patrol vacancies with two vacant for more than 18 months.\n<\/p>\n
\n Several positions have not been filled for more than a year.\n<\/p>\n
\n The location of the five new replacement crossings has not been confirmed by the council but would be those \u201cbest served by a permanent crossing,\u201d it said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Council tax and the cost of garden waste collections are set to rise in Sandwell next year to cover a \u00a317m hole in the council\u2019s budget.\n<\/p>\n
\n The council plans to make more than \u00a38m worth of cuts and savings as well as tap into just over \u00a39m from its reserves to cover the shortfall in its finances for 2026\/27.\n<\/p>\n
\n The budget proposal said: \u201cDue to ongoing vacancies and recruitment challenges in the school crossing patrol service, it is proposed for 2026\/2027 to replace five unfilled patrol positions with capital-funded formal pedestrian crossings, offering safe, all-day community access while generating year-on-year revenue efficiencies and making use of annual grants for permanent road safety improvements.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Councillor Keith Allcock, cabinet member for environment and highways at Sandwell Council, added: \u201cRoad safety is our highest priority, and we are seeking the best way to achieve this.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cOver the past 20 years, Sandwell has halved the number of casualties on its roads, including reducing child casualties by 67 per cent.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThis big reduction follows a targeted programme of engineering and education measures, and supporting police enforcement action, work which will continue to keep improving safety.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cUnfortunately, we have had several of our valued lollipop positions vacant for a while due to unfilled posts.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe want to find permanent solutions to allow parents to have confidence that children can cross our roads safely.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThese new crossings will also be there all day, every day providing a welcome road safety improvement that benefits the whole community.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThis is part of our roll out of plans to make our roads even safer. Our Phase 1 Community Road Safety Concern Programme is being designed now with the first of 38 projects starting in January.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n The move was discussed by the council\u2019s budget scrutiny committee at a meeting on November 5.\n<\/p>\n
\n Alan Lunt, the council\u2019s director for place, told councillors: \u201cIt is difficult to recruit.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cReplacing a vacant post with a physical school crossing ensures the safety for children crossing the road and ultimately it does generate an efficiency compared to the cost of employing a school crossing patrol.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sandwell Council plans to scrap five vacant school crossing positions and replace them with the fixed crossings in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-566783","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}