Lollipop cuts leave a sour taste

THE council has performed a U-turn on plans to stop funding lollipop men and women.

The Lib-Dem/Conservative coalition is to carry out a safety review of its proposal which would save £180,000.

But in the meantime, it is still cutting around £75,000 from next year’s school crossing patrol budget from unfilled posts.

The coalition announced that it wanted schools to provide crossing patrols as part of its budget proposals to save £41million in 2011/12.

They faced criticism and Labour tried to stop the cut at December’s council meeting.

Councillor John McCann, Cabinet member for regeneration and environment, admitted that some head teachers did not want to fund the service.

But he said that Oldham’s schools had unspent balances of £5million when the council was having to make huge savings and added: “Some schools are financially stretched, but other schools have very large balances sat there.

“If a school has a large balance that hasn’t been spent for some time, I do not see why they aren’t providing their own school crossing patrol or at least helping out with it.”

The safety review will look at what provision is needed. For example, Councillor McCann said a secondary school with older pupils and a pedestrian crossing may not need a patrol.

He said the council was listening to concerns and added: “One of the problems we have is we actually have secondary schools where we have a position in place but nobody will come and fill it.”

Labour councillor Joy Wrigglesworth, shadow Cabinet member for neighbourhoods and citizens, said the cuts would endanger pupils, their younger siblings and parents.

She also doubts that schools will pay, or that volunteers or the private sector, will step in to provide school crossing patrols.

She added: “We were right — this was a U-turn waiting to happen.

“Consultation should have taken place before the proposal was pushed through council — another example of this administration making the wrong cuts at the wrong time.”