A FRESHBROOK mum has criticised council bosses after children narrowly missed injury on the road outside her son’s school.

Rania Raza, 35, said of the situation at Hazelwood Academy, which lost its crossing warden in February: “It’s only a matter of time before an accident happens.”

The Stokesay Drive school was told by Swindon Borough Council that a recruitment freeze meant that the retired warden would not be replaced at that time. But council bosses said that traffic surveys had been commissioned.

Several months on, the promised surveys have not taken place – and with the end of term looming, the opportunity for completing the surveys while school is still in session is coming to an end.

Mum-of-two Rania Raza’s four-year-old son attends Hazelwood’s nursery. “There’s no crossing – there’s absolutely nothing,” she said.

“I’m concerned that Swindon Borough Council are dilly-dallying. I just want a result. I have been speaking to other parents and saying, ‘I think we need to do something about it.’

“Everyone wants it. Who doesn’t want safety for their children?”

According to Suzanne Lloyd, Hazelwood Academy’s headteacher, there have already been two near misses on the busy road outside the school.

There is currently no crossing at school on the Stokesay Drive, which is used as a cut through by motorists avoiding queues on Tewkesbury Way.

In May, she said, a taxi almost hit a child – leaving the youngster terrified.

“Our parents are really concerned," said Ms Lloyd.

“Other schools in the area have a number of measures, including zebra crossings, road calming measures and crossing wardens.

“We have requested that a full and thorough assessment of the situation on Stokesay Drive is carried out in order that appropriate measures can be put in place to safeguard our pupils.

“We’re urging the council to look at this as a priority.”

The school said that parents had offered to act as volunteer wardens to help children cross the road – but that the council warned the school against it.

Kate Ayliffe, business manager at Hazelwood Academy, said: “We have been told that we can’t directly ‘recruit’ volunteers from our parent community as the council have to organise this due to potential issues around commitment of volunteers, insurance responsibility, maintenance of required service standards and training.”

In March, the school presented a petition signed by 400 parents and residents urging the council to reinstate funding for a crossing warden on Stokesay Drive. The petition was supported by ward councillor Steph Exell.

Funding pressures mean that Swindon Borough Council voted in February to cut the school crossing patrol budget by £20,000 for this financial year.

A spokesman for the council said: “School crossing patrols are a non-statutory service and the majority of schools in Swindon operate without any school crossing patrol in the vicinity.

"Parents are responsible for ensuring their children are able to travel to school safely, whether or not the local authority is able to provide crossing facilities.

“We are currently carrying out traffic surveys at all of our school crossing patrol sites.

"These cover the number of vehicles and pedestrians at school times along with vehicle speeds, which will allow us to review whether our remaining budget is being deployed in the most effective way.”