Supervisor offers protection to crossing school students

FERNTREE Gully students crossing a busy stretch of road are to receive temporary protection from a crossing supervisor.
Knox City Council voted last week to relocate the supervisor previously stationed at the intersection of Burwood Highway and Dorset Road to the Francis Crescent crossing for the remainder of the 2005/06 financial year.
The decision was taken after conducting pedestrian counts at pedestrian-operated signal locations on Dorset Road between Francis Crescent and Burwood Highway.
Dobson Ward councillor Karin Orpen said it made sense to relocate the supervisor since students of closed down Ferntree Gully Primary School had been transferred to Wattleview.
The council will ask the primary school to advise students that the new crossing was the preferred travel path for those accessing the school from east of Dorset Road.
A crossing count will be undertaken before the end of the 2005/06 financial year to determine whether VicRoads’s criteria have been met for the continued provision of a supervisor. The council also plans to introduce parking restrictions on either side of the crossing to emphasise the its location, and will apply to VicRoads to have the Ferntree Gully College school speed zone extended to include the Francis Crescent intersection.