FREE TUESDAY JANUARY 17 2017 379 7100 Southern View Proudly locally owned and published by Star Media Award winning publishing group Bellbird (Korimako) Spreydon, Hoon Hay, Hillmorton, Cracroft, Cashmere, St Martins, Somerfield, Sydenham, Addington, Waltham, Opawa, Beckenham, Huntsbury, Woolston Schools will have long wait for lower speed zones • By Andrew King and Caitlin Miles LINWOOD AVENUE School’s principal is frustrated the school doesn’t feature on a city council list of 18 prioritised for lower traffic speed zones. Blair Dravitski said he didn’t even know the list existed and said he hadn’t heard anything from the city council about it. Last year the school on Linwood Ave asked the city council to look at installing a slow speed zone, including flashing signs, to let people know they were near a school. A school zone is an area where the speed is reduced to 40km/h during times when pupils are arriving and leaving, any other time the usual speed limit applies. Currently the school is in a 50km/h speed limit zone. Mr Dravitski said a traffic engineer had looked at how traffic moved around the school and said it could install better signage and speed bumps before lowering the speed limit. Mr Dravitski said safety is still a huge priority. St Anne’s Catholic School and Te Waka Unua, both located on Ferry Rd have also been asking for lower speed limits, but neither feature on the city council list. The city council has only $120,000 a year to spend implementing school zones on roads by schools. The cost covers up to four zones across the city a year. Linwood-Central-Heathcote Community Board member Alexandra Davids said lowering speed limits outside of schools should be a priority and wants to see more movement on the issue BLINDS...Cleaned, Repaired & Restored... Restore your oiled CEDAR BLINDS with our re-oiling service. Rejuvenate your lacquered CEDAR BLINDS High-tech Cleaning We clean and repair all types of blinds – Venetians, Cedar, Verticals, Roller, Hollands, Romans and Pleated – with environmentally friendly cleaning products. Temperature Controlled Drying Re-oiling & Rejuvenating Fabric Blinds - such as Austrian and Roman Same Day Pick Up & Drop Off We offer a same-day, pick up and drop off service for most types of blinds. Bookings are required. Convenient Location Drop blinds into us by 9am, at 330 Cashel Street (near the Fitzgerald end), and collect them at the end of the day. New Blind Sales Priced from $30 www.blindcare.co.nz Roller Blinds cleaned from as little as $20 per blind Ph 377 0770, 330 Cashel St, Christchurch SCAN QR code for Info > and boosting funding would be a good start. City council manager operations transport Steffan Thomas (left) said schools are prioritised based a number of factors relating to the road environment outside a school. “The list is reviewed regularly and the ranking of an individual school can change due to the WE ARE OPEN Mon - Fri 7.30am to 5.00pm SAFETY: Linwood Ave School pupils (left) use flags to make themselves more visible to motorists at the Linwood Ave crossing. The school didn’t make the list of those getting speed limits reduced. Neither did Te Waka Unua (above). school, and the surrounding environment, changing,” he said. Traffic figures from April last year showed along Ferry Rd between Osborne St and Aldwins Rd an average of 24,600 vehicles per day used the road with 1810 during peak traffic from 8am-9am and the same figures for the school peak between 3pm and 4pm. In 2015 ex-Te Waka Unua pupil Isaiah Matoe was hit by a car outside the school when he tried to cross Ferry Rd. As a result his left ear had to be glued back on and he was left with cuts and bruises. Based on the city council being able to install about three zones per year, Somerfield School will get a lower speed limit this year, Cashmere High School and Christchurch South Intermediate in 2018, Aidenfield Christian School in 2019 and St Martins School in 2020.
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