HOPES are high a new zebra crossing will be in place outside Exminster Primary School by September after extensive efforts to find a school crossing patrol person failed.

If councillors give the go ahead to fund the £89,000 crossing, work will take place over the summer holidays to improve safety for both youngsters and pedestrians.

The school had struggled to recruit anyone to provide the school crossing patrol and there has been no one in place since November 2020.

A report to the Teignbridge Highways and Traffic Orders Committee which meets next week (July 25), explained: ‘Despite the best efforts of the school to recruit locally and following an extended period of recruitment by Devon County Council, this post has remained vacant with no applications received.’

It continued that there had been problems retaining patrols at the location for some time, and where patrols can’t be recruited locally, the costs associated with making four car journeys a day to work for a total of an hour on site is ‘financially unattractive’ for many candidates.

The recommendation for the new zebra crossing, which has the backing of county councillor Alan Connett, is to ‘provide a dedicated pedestrian crossing facility serving the school and the wider community’.

If approved, it will have a high friction surface, a reduction of the road width at the crossing point and an increase in the footway width from the school side. The report says the scheme will make civil enforcement easier with zebra markings either side of the crossing instead of the current arrangement of a school keep clear area on the school side only.

Meg Booth, Devon County Council’s director of climate change, environment and transport, said in the report: ‘These combined measures will alleviate safety issues frequently raised by previous patrols at this busy crossing site that meets the criteria for a funded patrol. The area around Exminster Community Primary is very constrained with junctions and corner to take into consideration.

‘Alternative locations were considered but these would not address the crossing demand and current safety issues for the school.

‘The proposed zebra crossing also has the additional benefit of accommodating a desire line outside of school travel time from residential areas in the east to the recreational ground, skate park and Deepway Centre that is used by Scout and Guide groups by delivering pedestrians to the side of Deepway Lane that is served by a footway.

‘Improved crossing facilities will enhance links between residential areas to the East of Exminster, the school and the Deepway Centre and recreation ground.

‘This will have a positive effect on promoting healthy and sustainable travel within the community..’