A mother who gathered a 700-strong petition to improve road safety around Peebles primary schools has vowed to fight on.
Helen Wallace started her campaign after she and her toddler son were nearly hit by a speeding car at the puffin crossing on the A72 near Kingsland Primary School: an incident a council report first called “unfortunate”, and then “alarming”.
The paper instructed councillors to take no action, but last Thursday’s council meeting did agree to erect a 20mph road sign (enforceable by police when flashing), review safe pedestrian routes, and survey parents’ concerns, before meeting with teachers, police and the public to discuss its findings.
“Basically, it’s a waiting game: maybe they’ll do something, maybe they won’t,” Helen told us after her presentation. “I don’t think anything will happen this year. The council goes on volume of traffic, but we’re going on speed.
“It’s frightening, a nightmare: cars fly down that road, in and out of town. If the HGVs going at 45mph hit somebody, how many bits will they be in? We’re looking at near-misses, not just accidents. Does someone have to die before something is done?
“We want all the schools to be safer. We’ll have a fight on our hands, but we’re going for it.
“Some 700 people are behind us. I’m a dog with a bone. My son nearly died. I’m not letting this one go.”