By Ryan Sands
A Rowallane councillor has hailed a primary school road safety campaign that has culminated in the installation of a new pedestrian crossing. Callum Bowsie (DUP) praised the pupils of Ballynahinch Primary School for their two-year campaign for better road safety and welcomed the new puffin crossing, which he had lobbied for on their behalf.
The local representative highlighted that, in January 2023, Mrs Sharon Kirkland’s P6 class sent letters to their five Rowallane councillors “demanding better road safety for pupils crossing the road” and that their ‘Fast and Furious’ campaign had been “launched in the wake of their former lollipop man being clipped by speeding vehicles and eventually having to retire.”
Cllr Bowsie visited the school, collected 21 pupils’ letters, and “began bringing the school’s campaign to the heart of decision-making within the Department for Infrastructure (DfI).” He continued: “Since collecting the class’s letters, I have been working closely with senior officials with DfI Roads, who were prompt to agree to carry out a traffic survey and confirm the need for a crossing. However, securing funding and a timescale proved a lot more difficult. I spent over a year lobbying for the Infrastructure Minister (Liz Kimmins) to visit the school and see the road safety risk for herself and to also hear directly from the concerned pupils, parents and staff, including Mr [John] Anderson, the principal. I was very grateful for Minister Kimmins agreeing to visit the school, where she was able to announce the crossing would be delivered by the end of the year.”
Plans for the crossing to be installed pre-summer never came to pass, though Cllr Bowsie stated that its unveiling was “better late than never.” He added: “This pedestrian crossing should have been provided years ago, especially when pedestrian crossings have been installed outside local secondary schools. Pupils should not have to demand a safe crossing outside their primary school. But they have, and I want to commend them on their brilliant campaign, which has ultimately delivered a signalised crossing outside their school at long last. Even before the crossing was secured, their campaign was so impressive that I chose to nominate the class for a road safety award last year, and I was delighted to see their campaign win the primary schools’ category at the NI Road Safety Awards.”
The councillor concluded that it was brilliant “to see young people involved in lobbying their elected representatives.” He added: “I hope my visits to the school to provide updates on work to date and explain the process has encouraged them and let them see that their voice was being heard. To be able to introduce the DfI Minister – or the ‘boss of roads’ as I called her – to the pupils and staff in March was, I hope, proof that their voice definitely was being heard by politicians. When I began working on this campaign with the school, little did I know my own niece would be among the first P1 pupils to use the crossing.”
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