New Lollipop lady

Useless Fecker

Just wondering has anyone any experience of getting a county / city council to provide a school with a lollipop lady. Just wondering if anyone has any tips as how to be successful when talking to the powers that be. My child started school recently and I am stunned by the volume of traffic on the walk to school and the fact that there is no where to truly cross the road safetly

hmmm

I thought Lollipop ladies were a community thing, i.e. you need to find someone willing to do it?

foggy_lad

hmmm wrote: »

I thought Lollipop ladies were a community thing, i.e. you need to find someone willing to do it?

but then when you do afaik the local council pay for them and provide uniforms etc they would also need garda clearance which could take several months if not longer as there is a huge backlog

sdanseo

There's a lollipop lady - 2 in fact - at different schools near me. Both do two things, an incredibly complicated job indeed as described below:

1. Press button on traffic lights.
2. When light goes green, stand in road like a feckin eejit whilst children obey the green man.

Meanwhile, our roads are in an absolute fecking kip state. There's what you get for building schools on main roads though.

Ham'nd'egger

Useless Fecker wrote: »

Just wondering has anyone any experience of getting a county / city council to provide a school with a lollipop lady. Just wondering if anyone has any tips as how to be successful when talking to the powers that be. My child started school recently and I am stunned by the volume of traffic on the walk to school and the fact that there is no where to truly cross the road safetly

You will need to contact the Roads/Traffic Department of your local council but they will only move places when contacted by a school principal, BOM, PTA and local politicians on a regular basis. After a lot of cajoling, traffic surveys, monitoring of school numbers and general making sure that one is justified at a site, or at the worst end a fatality or serious injury, then you may bear fruit. Not every school site gets one by default as other traffic crossing measures may be suitable, some get one regardless of other traffic lights and some sites get more than one, even if they are secondary schools!

You can expect a process for applying for one to take a good 3 years and he council employ them.

Cookie_Monster

sdonn wrote: »

There's a lollipop lady - 2 in fact - at different schools near me. Both do two things, an incredibly complicated job indeed as described below:

1. Press button on traffic lights.
2. When light goes green, stand in road like a feckin eejit whilst children obey the green man.

Meanwhile, our roads are in an absolute fecking kip state. There's what you get for building schools on main roads though.

I really don't get this. The nearest lilly-pop lady to me was replaced recently by a set of pedestrian lights or so I thought, yet in September she was still there, just pressing the button :rolleyes:

The mind boggles

Ham'nd'egger

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

I really don't get this. The nearest lilly-pop lady to me was replaced recently by a set of pedestrian lights or so I thought, yet in September she was still there, just pressing the button :rolleyes:

The mind boggles

I've seen it before as well. The lollipop lady is responsible for the kids getting across safely in the vicinity of the school but some traffic lights don't give close to enough time for them to cross all the time. There are a fair few pedestrian crossings close to me and IMO a lollipop man/woman is needed if the way many motorists refuse to stop for same is to go by.