Letter to the Editor: Don't let our children cross alone

A letter to the Meath Chronicle,

The other week, residents of Enfield learned what many of us had feared — that when our school crossing warden retires, Meath County Council has no plans to replace her. The position, we were told at the Trim Municipal Area meeting, will simply cease to exist. A technical review has been carried out. The junction of Main Street and Johnstown Road has been deemed safe. And that, apparently, is that.

With respect to the Director of Services, I don’t think a technical review tells the full story. And I suspect any parent who walks their child to school in Enfield would agree.

150 to 180 Children Can’t Be Wrong

Between 150 and 180 children cross at that junction every school day. These are not occasional pedestrians with full adult awareness of traffic. They are children — unpredictable, distracted, sometimes in a hurry, often in a group — crossing one of the busiest junctions in the town.

Yes, there is a green man. Yes, there are railings. These are welcome measures, and nobody is dismissing them. But any parent will tell you that a pelican crossing and a lollipop person are not the same thing. One is a button and a light. The other is a human being, known to the children, visible to the drivers, with the authority and the judgement to hold back traffic when a situation requires it — and the wisdom to know when that situation has arisen before an accident makes it obvious.

A Face the Children Trust

There is something else that a technical review cannot measure, and that is the relationship between a school crossing warden and the children she serves. Our lollipop lady is not a stranger to these children. She is a familiar, reassuring presence — someone they have seen every school morning and every afternoon, someone who knows their faces and their routines. That familiarity matters. Children respond to her. They wait for her signal. They cross when she says it is safe.

Replace her with a pedestrian signal and you are asking children to make that judgement themselves, in a busy junction, during the chaos of the school run, on dark winter mornings when visibility is poor and drivers are rushing. That is a significant ask of a child. It is, frankly, an unfair one.

The Council’s Own Logic

Meath County Council has told us that as each school warden retires, each location is reviewed on its own merits. In Dangan, we are told, road markings and ramps were installed as an alternative. That is a reasonable approach — but it only works if the alternative measures genuinely match the level of protection that was previously in place. The question that needs to be answered for Enfield is a simple one: are the green man, and the railings at the Main Street/Johnstown Road junction a genuine equivalent to having a trained, present, responsible adult managing that crossing twice a day? Not in theory. In practice. On a wet Tuesday morning in November, when the footpath is dark, the traffic is heavy, and a six-year-old is about to step off the kerb. If the answer is yes, the council should be able to demonstrate that with evidence, not just assurances. If the answer is no, then the position should be filled.

A Question of Priorities

The cost of a school crossing warden is modest. The cost of a serious accident at a school junction — in human terms, in community terms, in the terms that no review can quantify — is not.

Enfield is growing. The schools are busy. The roads are busier. This is not the moment to reduce the safety provision for the children of this town. It is the moment to take it seriously. We owe our lollipop lady a great deal for her years of service. The best tribute we could pay her is to ensure that when she goes, the children she protected are not left to manage without her. [Jamie Cullen], Enfield, Co. Meath