COUNCILLORS in Okehampton are to work together to press for a safe pedestrian route from the Meldon Fields Housing Estate to the new primary school.

They agreed to act at a meeting of Okehampton Hamlets Parish Council on Tuesday night after hearing from a concerned parent of a four-year-old child.

Keith Stevens said he was worried about walking his four-year-old daughter to the new St James Church of England Primary School from their home on the estate.

‘My daughter starts at the school in September and I know of six or seven others starting at the same time,’ he said.

‘They will all be coming to the primary school from the Meldon Fields estate and there has got to be a route provided to walk them to the school safely.

‘My wife doesn’t have a car so they are going to have to walk in all weathers and our two-year-old twins don’t like going in the pushchair.

‘The only route to the school they can take is about two miles along Baldwin Drive into town and back out along the Crediton Road to the school.’

He called on the council to support a footpath east along Crediton Road to a planned roundabout at the estate boundary and from there link up to a safe route through the rest of the development, yet to be built, to the new school.

‘I’m sure you are aware that there should be road access from the estate but that hasn’t happened for various reasons, so we are looking for your support for a footpath from the bottom of Broom Park to go towards the roundabout, and have a crossing at the roundabout to the new development,’ he said.

Executive headteacher Hazel Fox said the school would support the campaign for a pedestrian crossing and footpath on Crediton Road to provide a route for walking to school from the estate.

‘Everyone is concerned about this,’ she said. ‘We encourage parents to walk the children to school because we don’t have much parking here but if it is dangerous they are just not going to do it.’

The plan for a pedesetrian crossing and footpath is also being supported by the Meldon Fields Residents Group, which is calling on Okehampton Hamlets Parish Council and borough and county councillors to work together to provide a safe pedestrian route.

Okehampton North’s borough councillors Cllrs Tony Leech, Mike Davies and Kevin Ball all agreed at the meeting to press for solution to be found.

Cllr Ball is to start the ball rolling as county councillor for Okehampton, highways being primarily a county responsibility.

He said: ‘I will have a conversation with the highways officers initially to see if they can organise a small meeting to explain the situation to them and then see what we can do from there because the highways officers are the experts.

‘We don’t want to promise something that can’t be delivered but I think if we can get together in a room we can work out what can be done.’

The Meldon Fields Residents Group is suggesting that the pedestrian crossing should be sited close to the planned roundabout so it could link in with development not yet built to the north of the road, to a convenience store and onto the school.

However, Cllr Leech said there would be safety issues in having a pedestrian crossing so close to the roundabout.

‘You’ll have a blind spot on that corner,’ he said. ‘I always thought that having a roundabout on a hill next to an enormous bend was the most ridiculous thing anyway, but you can always put it to the planners and see what they think.’