You are looking at what was a bus shelter. It was – and what was left of it still is – on the footpath on the Westway, Arbroath’s busy bypass to and from the City of Dundee.
A week ago, a car on this road is thought to have mounted the footpath, demolished the bus shelter and injured two pedestrians. A 15 year-old was checked out by paramedics on the spot and was shaken but uninjured. But a 90 year-old man was taken to Dundee’s Ninewells Hospital with injuries to his leg and his hand. The bus stop has been replaced by roadwork barriers at the crash scene.
This is the road, host to an expanding industrial estate and a supermarket, along which, if Angus Council’s plans were to go ahead, would run the planned new primary school at Hospitalfields.
This is the very route along which, if the plans went ahead, a quite mad ‘walking bus’ route would conduct children twice daily past this very hedge, to cross this road to get to the proposed new school.
The crash above involved a mounting of the pavement and injuries to pedestrians.
A cluster of erratic tinies wouldn’t stand a chance if a fast cyclist had to take to the pavement for self-protection in a tight spot, never mind if a vehicle mounted the footpath as this one did. And this was only a car, not one of the endless parade of freight lorries bypassing Arbroath for Dundee. And as well as being the continually busy bypass, the Westway now has a new supermarket generating even more traffic.
Angus Council education department asked the Council’s own road safety expert to prepare a report on the Hospitalfield site. This provided an entirely negative report saying drop off would extend onto the Westway at busy times with a high increase in accident risk. The education department reacted to this by paying for a roads and transport consultant from Glasgow to prepare an alternative report. The consultants were instructed not to include in their report any taking of account of developments such as the new ASDA supermarket or proposals for an extension to the industrial estate.
A lollipop man was killed at this point in the road a few years ago and many people are convinced it is a matter of time before a child is killed, if the new school is allowed to go ahead.
The way in which Angus Council managed the evaluation of the Westway for road and pedestrian safety bears little scrutiny. This demonstrates the strength of the corporate will to force this vanity project through, with the support of facts knowingly distorted and at the potential cost of young lives.
And the proof of the ‘vanity’ is that the available space per child will be greatly restricted. The projected savings show a reduction in teaching and administrative staff which indicate a reduction in rescources and in the primary educational benefit of the contemplated move.
This is the project for which Angus Council have won themselves a reputation for proven chicanery unparalled in a markedly grotty history of local authority attempts to force closure of rural schools. Even Argyll and Bute, whose low-jinks came to national attention on more than one occasion, comes second to the Angus performance.
The Westway conditions are clearly unsafe for pedestrians, particularly small ones and for mothers pushing prams with walking kids in tow, unable to get out of the way and unable quickly to muster a group for concerted action in an emergency.
An independent safety survey of the Westway and of the access proposals for drop-off and pick-up traffic for the projected new school is strongly indicated before the Education Secretary comes to a judgment on Angus Council’s decision, which he has called-in for review.
Photo: Arbroath Herald
Apologies if this seems unduly parochial – but, I’m not clear why ForArgyll keeps featuring articles about developments in Angus – first of all, school closures, and now storm damage. Have I missed some huge seismic shift which has moved the Angus area into Argyll somewhere?
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For Andrew:
It’s ALL about school closures, Andrew, about learning from each other’s experiences in combating improper local authority tactics in trying to force through unfounded school closures; in discovering what procedures should be and aren’t; in the right interrogations for different kinds of evidence – and in making the common cause all rural school campaigners need.
The councils have COSLA, The rural Schools have SRSN. The first is complacent, retrogressive, publicly funded and frankly not very impressive. The second is voluntary, expert and progressive. The relationship For Argyll has built with SRSN has been hugely beneficial to Argyll schools, in the advice and support SRSN have offered and in the way they have worked with the very able Argyll Rural Schools Network.
In return for that we support the work they do more widely – which also has a huge educational value for us and our readers because each situation sees different strategies employed.
And generally speaking folk in both Angus and Argyll have warmed to the support and interest from their peers in the other place.
At the moment, there is a moratorium on school closure proposals while the Commission for the Delivery of Rural Education sits. But that has no great amount of time still to run. Argyll Schools will need to quick off the mark in response to the inevitable third generation of closure attempts that will emerge from the Council’s education department.
Everyone has learned a great deal from the Muirfield case in Angus – including the value and procedure of the important condition scores – which were also wrongly manipulated against many Argyll schools – but in a clumsier way.
By the way, the photograph wasn’t of storm damage – although it looks exactly like that. This was a road accident at a spot on a highly dangerous town bypass road near which Angus council plans to site a new school. So, although it may not look it, this was school closure related.
The primary school in Tarbet on Loch Lomond, Arrochar school, sees tiny children from Arrochar supposed to walk to school along the A83 under the – even for adults – terrifying pinch point of the railway bridge where the footpath narrows dangerously.
This risk has arisen because Argyll and Bute Council decided to save money by extending the distance which qualifies children to a place on a school bus and although much of Arrochar is now on the borderline, they deny the children that support, preferring them to take to the A83.
So we are similarly burdened with pragmatism in local authority, even at the risk of the lives of the most vulnerable.
And of course you are not parochial – as neither is For Argyll – just curious, as too are we. And without curiosity …?
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Andrew,
I think there are two key reasons for this.
Firstly we must remember that when A&B Council blundered their way through poorly constructed and potentially damaging school closure proposals we received immeasurable help and support from people outside of Argyll. That has resulted in richly deserved reciprocation.
Secondly, and more significantly, it is important that people recognise that there are more than one Council who would happily operate in the manner A&B did if it meant they could successfully push through policy that is designed to further personal objectives rather than community ones. The more they are allowed to do without proper challenge and scrutiny the more likely it is that like minded Councils will follow suit. By supporting the case in Angus, after supporting ARSN (and continuing to support ARSN), in fighting A&B proposals, FA is helping people realise that their efforts can make a difference. This can only be beneficial for Argyll as it provides valuable lessons for everyone.
The mess of school closures is a Scotland wide issue that needs to be tackled. Irrespective of whether it is tackled in Argyll, Angus or the Western Isles the act of tackling it and tackling it professionally will help Argyll schools and communities.
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I am glad that “forargyll” has highlighted events from throughout Scotland that reflect scenarios that could occur within the Argyll area. Your report on this subject is very informative and is welcomed by many. It shows what is actually happening within Angus Council and the way they appear to construe reports and omit facts to achieve their aims against what the local electorate wants.
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We’ve been running this picture and story on our Muirfield Action Group Facebook page and it has sparked the usual response of fear from all our anxious parents.
This picture is no laughing matter for us parents at the schools. We have the foresight to see that this crash could one day have more serious implications than a lucky escape for a 15 year old or an elderly man. On any given day there is the potential for 500 kids to be on the very road if the new school is passed. Kids don’t have the same valuable sense of fear or the same level of concentration and, in this case, even when they are on the pavement they aren’t safe. It’s a road that everyone in our town fears. It’s a road that was rated unsuitable for a school by Angus Council’s Road Engineer.
If Mike Russell passes this proposal after all the nonsense that has prevailed in the surveyor reports and the flawed consultation I want to know what possible explanation our council can give that over-rides the damning verdict a road safety expert gave Angus Council.
“We’re going to make the road safe” won’t cut the mustard if the unthinkable is allowed to happen by giving these proposals the all-clear. I will post a selection of parents comments from our Facebook page tomorrow.
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Angus Councils Roads Engineer doesn’t need a crystal ball to see common sense! Wonder how many people would be happy to see their children walking along one of the busiest roads in the Arbroath just to go to school. On Thursday morning I stood outside another school in Arbroath and watched a near miss between a car and a lollipopman. Mistakes happen but why even think of setting a school against such a dangerous road.
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Believe me, the A83 through Tarbet is terrifying enough in a car. It’s narrow, poorly sighted and prone to flooding. However, it’s far too convenient to blame the road for the danger. It’s the people driving dangerously on it that are the bulk of the problem, and I’m sure the same applies to the Westway.
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