Deanside Primary School Council is calling on Melton council to upgrade “unsafe” roads around the school.
The school opened at the beginning of 2022 and has 160 students.
Deanside School Council president Simon Vallone said the road infrastructure in the area isn’t suitable for servicing a primary school, and that along with regular accidents around Taylors and Plumpton roads, a two-kilometre school drop off trip can take “up to 45 minutes”.
“Ideally you’d like other avenues to get there, but we don’t even have a footpaths,” he said.
In a letter to Melton mayor Lara Carli, seen by Star Weekly, Mr Vallone said the community wishes to express its “dissatisfaction with the current state of the surrounding infrastructure, specifically in roads and safety for our children and families”.
The Deanside School Council is calling on Melton council to duplicate Taylors Road, install traffic lights at the Plumpton Road-Taylors Road and City Vista Court-Taylors Road intersections, concrete pavements on roads near the school, increase lighting, and complete Conservatory Drive.
The letter seeks funding for the projects to be allocated in the upcoming council budget and for the works to be completed in the next 12 months.
Mr Vallone said they aren’t asking for anything “too outlandish, just an increase in safety”.
“It’s not uncommon to see kids walking dangerously close to Taylors road with oncoming semi’s flying down,” he said.
“We’ve got a rural road in the middle of an urbanised corridor with no safe access or pathing, we can’t ride bikes, we can’t walk, there’s not even public transport that we can catch.
“The principal is also concerned because its affecting the education outcomes for kids when there’s regular late drop offs, and teachers are getting stuck at school waiting for parents to be able to get kids.”
Council has a plan for the Taylors Road Corridor which includes the traffic lights being delivered by council for Plumpton Road-Taylors Road by June 2024, and Taylors Road-City Vista Court by the end of 2024.
The plan also states that a two-lane upgrade of Taylors road, between Plumpton Road and Sinclairs Road will be delivered by developers in the next five to 10 years.
Mr Vallone said school council will be organising community rallies, barbecues and campaigning in the coming weeks.
Melton council was contacted for comment.
