20 February 2009 in Mayo News
I welcome the State Government’s belated announcement that the Nairne Primary School will finally receive funding for their school crossing.
Serviced by a dangerous school crossing, the student traffic monitors at the Nairne Primary School are too often negotiating heavy traffic and semi trailers in order to assist students on their way to School. A completely unacceptable situation.
The crossing has needed to be fixed for many years and my predecessor, former Member for Mayo, the Hon. Alexander Downer, the State Member for Kavel, Mark Goldsworthy and I have lobbied hard for funding to fix this life-threatening problem.
Under the Howard Government’s Auslink Strategic Regional Programme, Mr Downer was able to successfully secure $325,000 of Federal funding towards a project which would have installed new traffic signals. Despite this previous progress, plans were revised and the project never commenced due to the lack of co-operation and support from the Rann State Government. The State Government’s behaviour endangered the Federal money.
Following a revised plan from the District Council of Mount Barker, in November 2008 I wrote to the Federal Minister for Transport requesting the money allocated was adjusted for the new plan. I am very pleased that the request has been agreed to by the Federal Minister so that finally the issue that has worried the parents and residents of the Nairne community for years has been addressed.
While this is not the best outcome, I welcome this decision as an improvement on the current horrific situation.
The safety of our children must be a priority. This is a well-deserved but belated step forward for the community.