Safer school streets proposed for Stratford

Stratford District Council (SDC) is currently undertaking a district wide approach to making streets around schools safer.

Working with all urban schools, SDC is kicking off the project with the Stratford High School on Swansea Road.

Victoria Araba, Director Assets says the project’s vision is to improve the safety of streets near school entrances for students and all road users, encourage active travel to school and reduce congestion.

“Based on feedback previously received from the school community, we’ve developed a draft design to implement several safety features in the vicinity of the school,” she says. “Before finalising this design, we are asking people to review our proposal and tell us if it’s the right fit for our community.”

The draft design for Swansea Road is available to view on stratford.govt.nz, and key features, which focus on enhancing safe roads and roadsides and safe speeds include:

• Slowing traffic speeds to 30 kmph during peak times;
• Upgrading the existing pedestrian crossing;
• Providing additional crossing facilities and pedestrian islands; and
• Removing a section of berm to create recessed parking bays across the road from the school between Fenton Street and Cloten Road.

Feedback is open until Monday 20 December 2021 and can be provided to the project team by:

• emailing feedback@stratford.govt.nz using “Stratford High School safety improvements” as the subject header
• writing to Roading Engineer Stratford District Council PO Box 320 Stratford 4352
• completing a short online form