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“It's made an absolutely massive difference to the safety of our school! We were seeing parents turning in the road as children were trying to cross, we’d had many near misses and needed to do all we could to prevent an accident and injury to one of our children.”
– Craig Wheatley - Headteacher
Working in collaboration with Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, Uniplay recently completed a road safety and active travel project at Turton and Edgworth Primary School.
Turton and Edgworth are a rural school on the outskirts of Bolton but fall under the Blackburn with Darwen constituency.
A large percentage of families travel by car to and from school which was creating a safety hazard due to the location of the school and surrounding streets. The school had been crying out for assistance to slow traffic approaching school and to highlight the children needing to cross.
Uniplay were asked by the council to work with the school to produce a new zebra crossing to highlight a safe crossing point for the children and to slow vehicular traffic coming towards school. In order to make the crossing fun and appealing to the children and to give ownership to the school, Uniplay worked in consultation with the Head Teacher and Site Manager to create a colourful yet conforming crossing.
“We wanted to create a crossing that was fun for the children and promoted road safety. It was great working with both parties to find a solution that was practical yet appealing to the children utilising it.”
Uniplay
Along with the need to highlight road safety, BwD Road Safety office Karen Timperley wanted to help to create an environment that promoted physical activity as part of the children’s normal route into school and encourage active travel.
Physical activity is associated with many improvements in health and wellbeing, and this was something Karen really wanted to incorporate into the scheme to not only improve health and well being but reduce carbon footprint.
For most people, the easiest and most acceptable forms of physical activity are those that can be built into everyday life and the council wanted to encourage this behaviour.
Parents’ and children’s concern about road traffic injury is a major contributor to physical inactivity, as parents can be reluctant to allow children out of the home without constant adult supervision. Improving access to safe and appropriate play spaces along with improving road safety infrastructure is paramount to reducing accidents and increasing activity.
As a continuation of the road safety element, Uniplay created a 3D trail from one end of the zebra crossing into the school gates. With activities such as hopscotch, hurdles and ring steps and the visually impactive 3D design, the trail was a huge hit with both children and adults alike.
The scheme was made possible utilising preformed road grade thermoplastic material that is designed for areas of heavy traffic and is anti-slip. Uniplay design and cut all the markings to create interesting and innovative graphics that are practical and safe.
For more information on thermoplastic markings for your playground, call one of our team on 0333 321 6699 or visit www.uni-play.co.uk/contact/
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