The principal of a growing east Auckland primary school is advocating for new pedestrian crossings to be installed on its southern side to ensure its pupils’ safety.
Ormiston Primary School principal Heath McNeil and Sport Auckland play systems advisor/tamariki lead Mathew Johnson addressed the Howick Local Board on the issue at the board’s December business meeting.
The school is located adjacent to Ormiston Junior College and Ormiston Senior College.
McNeil told the Times about the school’s desire to have pedestrian crossings installed at its rear on Kerrykeel Drive to go along with the existing one on Helianthus Avenue.
When the school opened it had 101 pupils and it’s now got 1300.
He says it’s always understood the “ramifications of having that many children in a small area with narrow roads and lots of resident parking on the road because of the numbers in each house”.
“The crossing just outside the school, that took the first two years of the school to get.
“Probably in the last three years we’ve been trying to advocate and look at ways we could expediate getting more safe crossings toward the south of the school.
“Where the three schools are located, there’s 4000 students all converging on it all around the same time, particularly in the afternoon.
“The more cars we can take away from the school makes it a safer place, and making sure it’s safe option for walking and scootering or driving is a priority.”
McNeil says he expects the rolls of the senior and junior colleges to keep growing so even more pupils will have to get to and from the schools safely.
There have been “near misses” involving pupils and vehicles around the school, he says.
“Just in terms of stressed driver behaviour it has not been safe.
“When it gets clogged up in different parts of the street the school is on, sometimes people take unacceptable risks like going up on footpaths.”
He’s “really thankful” the local board could see the huge need in the area for the school’s community to be safe.
“I suppose from the funding that goes along with it we should be able to draft planning around a couple of flush pedestrian crossings and potentially another pedestrian refuge as well.
“That would be great, to have multiple points along the rear of the three schools. Thousands of children on a weekday are affected by those changes.”
Howick Local Board chairperson Damian Light says the board has voted to allocate $430,000 to pedestrian safety improvements in Kerrykeel Drive.
“Ormiston is the largest primary school in the country and despite over 70 per cent of its tamariki living within 2km, only a third walk due to concerns about unsafe roads,” he says.
“We heard clearly that providing safer crossing points on Kerrykeel Drive would make a significant difference, so we asked Auckland Transport to initiate the project.
“We’re hoping to see it delivered in 2025, subject to public consultation.”
