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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 01 Hansard (Wednesday, 11 February 2004) . . Page.. 257 ..

kids are being picked up at the street outside where they always were, some are being picked up down the other end of the oval and perhaps some somewhere else. You can arrange it so families stay together. I think that is going to be the case.

I know, informally, that at the school I drive past every day some parents go into one of the little back streets and others go somewhere else. Schools, and parents in particular, have to learn to split their traffic flow because those schools were not designed to accommodate the level of traffic that compacts into them in the morning and in the afternoon. Torrens is a prime example, and there are many other schools where that has to happen. Schools must understand this.

I am not sure whether it is in the facility of this government—or the previous government or the next government—to redesign the streets around Torrens primary school and other schools to accommodate the changed social patterns. We just cannot do that. I think we need to understand that.

Let me tell you what happens. Generally speaking, school crossings throughout the ACT are believed to be adequate and to meet all standards. There is a standard for everything: roads, traffic and signs—you name it, there is an Australian standard. Generally speaking, we meet those standards. There is a technical assessment of the number of students crossing a particular section of road and the level of conflict with passing traffic or the parental traffic. It is carefully examined.

It is not always the practice, I am advised, for a crossing to be at a school on its opening. Kids are little devils and do not always take notice of crossings, so it is useful to observe the pattern of student movement before putting in a crossing. Incidentally, there were some issues around one of the crossings at Amaroo because a local resident fiercely resisted, and he had one point that was valid. So that was an issue. We actually talked to this person. I am not sure that the end result—maybe a traffic island—will please him either, but it will be a more satisfactory result than the first one. Mr Cornwell seems to know something about it

Mr Cornwell: I’m agreeing with you!

MR WOOD: Believe it or not, people, we are still talking to one gentleman—or two, perhaps: two houses—about this issue. We are not prepared to steamroll them. We do not like to steamroll communities; I think we have said that before today. So that is the story around Amaroo.

Urban Services review the traffic management requirements of schools on a regular basis, when they are asked to or where they themselves understand there is a need. When a school community, a resident or a parent has a concern about the operation of the school crossing, they inevitably contact Urban Services, who will then assess the concerns raised and will go and talk to the school. I sign off letters all the time to school P&C associations on these issues, and my predecessors have done the same.

Mr Pratt, it is a continuing process. It has been happening in this government and the government before and the government before. Where it is possible, and where the assessment says there needs to be a change, that change does occur. There are over 300 school crossings throughout the ACT, and these are reviewed by Urban Services on

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