The Newstead community is lobbying Mount Alexander Shire Council in the hope of getting flashing safety lights installed to highlight the 40km\/h zone near Newstead Primary School on the busy Pyrenees Highway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A document with more than 170 signatures was presented to the council at its November council meeting last week amid growing school concerns around safety for students and their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It requests the council to support calls to have flashing LED lights installed at the existing 40km\/h limit signs marking the school zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We have had a look at this from a governance rules perspective and unfortunately we can’t accept it as an official petition,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We can’t officially accept it as a petition but we certainly understand that this is a significant matter for the Newstead community and we will acknowledge it as a joint letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Newstead community is lobbying Mount Alexander Shire Council in the hope of getting flashing safety lights installed to highlight…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":9502,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,15],"tags":[770,365,3426,3425],"ppma_author":[5230],"class_list":["post-9501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-latest-news","tag-mount-alexander-shire-council","tag-newstead","tag-newstead-primary-school","tag-pyrenees-highway"],"yoast_head":"\n
“We just want the flashing lights to help slow cars between 8am and 9.30am and 2.30pm to 4pm (on school days),” school principal Kathy Callander told the Express<\/em>, outside last week’s meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The Carisbrook Primary School and the Castlemaine Steiner School are also on the Pyrenees Highway and they already have flashing lights to mark their school zones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We are literally on the highway here,” Ms Callander said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The safety of our kids and families is paramount. It should be a given.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We continue to see incidents of cars not slowing down or (dangerously) overtaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We don’t want to see that end in a horrific accident.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At last week’s council meeting, council CEO Darren Fuzzard said that while the document bearing 172 names was not able to be formally accepted as a petition it would be acknowledged as a joint letter and also indicated steps would be taken to support its aims.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“A significant number of people in the community have got involved in this.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The relevant director and staff will follow up on this matter and deal directly with the school about their request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This is a matter where all we can do is put forward a case to VicRoads and the Department of Transport and seek their support for that, and certainly that’s what we will attempt to do.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"