Agenda and draft minutes

Councillor David Coldwell was confirmed as Chairman of the Task and Finish Group, after previously being nominated at Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 24^th July 2017.

There were no declarations of interest.

There were no announcements.

The Task and Finish Group discussed the draft terms of reference which had been presented at the meeting and whether the review should be extended to secondary schools in the District as well, but it was agreed that this review should be focused on primary schools and any recommendations could be extended to secondary schools if it was felt they were applicable.

A third term of reference was added:

“3. On conclusion of the review a report will be made to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee with recommendations based on the Group’s findings.”

This review was agreed following issues originally raised through Upper Beeding Parish Council. However it was noted that there were 44 primary schools in the District and it was felt that many of these schools probably faced very similar problems.

Members agreed to develop a questionnaire to send to all the primary schools in the District to gather evidence. The initial list of questions were as follows:

1.    Do you have a school travel plan? And could we have a copy?

2.    Do you have any particular issues around parking outside your school in the morning? And in the evening?

3.    Are there problems with parking illegally outside the vicinity of your school?

4.    What do you think would work well to resolve the issues?

5.    Can you tell us about the current situation regarding parking i.e. yellow lines, hatched boxes, are they visible, outside your school?

6.    Do you have a walking bus?

7.    How many parents are at your school?

8.    What do you do at your school to try and encourage social behaviour? i.e. teachers/parents with high visibility jackets outside the school at the beginning and end of the school day

9.    What does your school do to involve children to encourage their parents to help with the problems? i.e. encouraging walking to school

10.  What have you done to discourage antisocial behaviour?

11.  Is speeding a problem at your school?

12.  Do you have a policy in place to encourage cycling? Also for kids to wear helmets when cycling and remove headphones?

13.  Do you have a record of accidents, incidents and near misses, caused by drivers outside your school?

14.  Is the parking at your school bad? Multiple choice answer from strongly agree to strongly disagree

15.  Do you have a lolly-pop person?

16.  What would encourage your children to walk to school or travel by bike?

17.  Is there adequate signage outside your school?

18.  What time does the school day start and finish and what time do the school gates open and close (if different)?

19.  In your opinion, what would be the one single solution  to relieve the parking problems at your school?

20.  Have the schools consulted with parents on these problems?

The questions would be refined and collated into a questionnaire along with a space for the schools to add short comments.The final version would be circulated to Members of the Group before being sent to the schools. The schools would be given one month to respond. Letters would be sent to both the head teacher and school governors.

It was also suggested that parish and neighbourhood councils could be consulted as well, as part of the review.

Members were concerned that there were also problems reading access for emergency services at peak times outside the schools.

Following the responses from the schools, the Group would like carry out visits to selected schools across the District to observe the busy periods, and also to interview some key people such as  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The Task and Finish Group would work to approximately three meetings, one to consider the responses from the school questionnaires, a second to carry out a selection of interviews and the final meeting to discuss a draft report. They would endeavour to have a draft report by Christmas 2017.

The next meeting would be held at 5.30pm on Thursday 9^th November 2017.