Updated Thursday April 24th. 2008
Goudhurst & Kilndown CE Primary School Council presentation
At the Goudhurst Annual Parish Meeting on 21 April, the Goudhurst & Kilndown CE Primary School Council (4 children) gave a presentation on their School Travel Plan.
"We are four school councillors and we would like to explain about our travel plan which we hope will be accepted by the end of the term. All schools have to have a travel plan to try to reduce the number of car journeys to and from school each day and to encourage pupils to take more exercise. The first thing the school had to do was to send a questionnaire home to parents. As the children had to fill them in with their parents 151 out of 201 were returned.
Families were asked how they usually travelled to and from school. For instance they were asked if they shared lifts, if they walked and if so did they walk alone or with others. Then they were asked how they would like to travel to school. There were questions about how routes to school could be made safer and why more people didn’t walk. They were asked what parts of their route to school were particularly dangerous and how they could be made safer.
The questionnaires were analysed and parents and children’s comments put into the travel plan. Mr. Dorrington also talked to the staff about how they travelled to school and if car sharing was possible. The school council also had a meeting with Parish Councillor Ken Tutt to see if any of our suggestions were practical. He was very helpful but we realise that some things were too expensive or couldn’t legally be done.
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The first thing we looked at was where all our families live. Most live in Goudhurst or Kilndown but even so many families live down country lanes, in Bedgebury Forest and quite long distances from the school. Other families who lived in the village have moved but still keep their children at the school. Last year we had a family in Tonbridge, others in Pembury, Coxheath, Paddock Wood, Biddenden and two in Hawkhurst.
Two thirds of our families come to school by car and do not share cars. Many of these cars are full or afterwards parents are then going off to work or taking children to play groups. A further 10% share cars. 8% of our pupils now come by minibus or taxi as KCC recognise the roads to Kilndown are too dangerous for families to walk. Only 16% of our families walk.
More families say they would like to walk to school but it is either too far, too dangerous or takes too long. More families would like to travel by minibus and 22% would like to come by bicycle – but almost all realise it is not practical. There was no difference between the number of families who car share or would like to car share.
Hardly any staff are able to car share as they live in different directions, work on different days, arrive or leave at different times because of personal commitments.
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The main conclusion to the survey was that the roads to Goudhurst and the school are narrow and dangerous and that, in spite of 30 mph signs, traffic, including lorries drive much too fast. The scheme introduced for Goudhurst High Street whereby cars were allowed to park on the pavements was thought to be particularly dangerous as pedestrians, especially those parents having smaller children in buggies had no option but to walk in the road. There is a lack of pavements on the majority of routes to the centre of the village. Some of the comments were that traffic has increased dramatically especially in the Bedgebury and Cranbrook Roads and often exceeded 50 mph. There are blind corners on many roads, no footpaths, tall hedges which make walking very dangerous especially with children. Others mentioned poor visibility crossing roads especially the Cranbrook Road near to school. Accident spots were mentioned such as Clay Hill and Station Road.
There were several dangerous junctions such as Lidwells, North Road, Beresford road and the Cranbrook Road. Some quieter roads such as Back Lane and Maypole Lane are used as shortcuts especially if the village centre is blocked by lorries. It was suggested that more signs be introduced to prevent lorries using the route through the centre. One person felt mirrors would help at the Maypole exit.
Parents suggested calming measures including 20 mph restrictions along roads such as Back Lane and Maypole Lane similar to those outside Cranbrook Grammar School. Several felt more signs were needed but others felt existing ones were ignored. One family tried walking from Winchet Hill and it took over an hour which made it unrealistic on a regular basis.
Cycle paths appealed to a large number of pupils but they didn’t say where these should be sited.
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Because of the dangerous roads and where people live, it is difficult to reduce the number of car journeys and to encourage more to car share. We cannot stagger the times cars arrive and leave school because many families have children in more than one class. We are very lucky to have two large car parks so parents do not have to park on the main roads where they would cause congestion as happens in areas such as Cranbrook, Marden and Brenchley.
We are going to try two things as part of our Healthy Schools Programme. We are going to take part in the county ‘Walk to School on Wednesdays’ project which has just being launched. Lamberhurst School has a ‘Walking Bus’ where a group of trained parents walk a group of children to and from school. We are going to see if this is practical but the only route viable would seem to be from the estate via a second pick up at the pond, along Back Lane and round the Glebe Field to the school. However we will not start a ‘walking school bus’ unless the school is certain the route is as safe as possible."
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