Bristol’s lollipop ladies and men have been saved from the chop in a city council U-turn. All school crossing patrols were facing the axe as part of options to balance the annual budget.
The move would have saved only £314,000 a year compared with overall proposed cuts of £42million on day-to-day services in 2025/26. Councillors on the cross-party finance sub-committee expressed alarm about the proposal when they met on Wednesday, January 15, to scrutinise all the possible ways to make cuts.
Bristol City Council leader Cllr Tony Dyer (Green, Southville) has now confirmed that the plans to cut all funding for lollipop people have been dropped. He said: “We have decided that we won’t accept the option to remove school crossing patrols.
“The policy committee chair for transport and connectivity, Cllr Ed Plowden (Green, Windmill Hill), made it very clear that he thought that wasn’t a good option to go forward with, and that was reinforced by comments by members of the finance sub-committee.”
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He said Cllr Plowden would instead look at how lollipop patrols could be incorporated into a wider approach to ensuring road safety for children. Cllr Plowden said: “Our school crossing patrol officers, or lollipop people as they are affectionately known, do a truly fantastic job in dangerous circumstances.
“Working split shifts in all weathers for the living wage, they make such a difference to the journey to school for so many children who must cross dangerous streets. While I am delighted that we don’t need to take forward the reduction in school crossing patrols, I’m also determined to reduce road danger.
“By working together with the emergency services, but more importantly all the people who drive and move goods and services around Bristol, we can make Bristol’s streets safer for our children once and for all.” Cllr Dyer said: “Since first sharing the list of options for savings and increasing income, we’ve worked through the feedback received and amended this list to include in the current version of the budget.
“Some of those ideas included in the original long list of options will not be taken forward in this current budget but will remain part of the long list of options available to councillors to consider when setting future budgets. These include the option of reducing spend on school crossing patrols.”
As previously reported, Cllr Plowden told the finance sub-committee that the patrols encouraged children, their parents and siblings to travel actively to school and that if they were removed, more people would drive, which could increase the danger for youngsters still walking to school, especially those from deprived backgrounds whose families could not afford a car.
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He said the previous Labour administration cut the number of lollipop ladies and men from 65 to 42 in 2017 and that those who remained were at sites considered more dangerous, so they should be retained. Cllr Plowden told the meeting that, if the proposal was rejected, a review would be carried out to assess the need for school crossing patrols as the council rolled out more school streets and liveable neighbourhoods, along with other measures to improve road safety.
He received cross-party support to drop the plans by Cllr Jonathan Hucker (Conservative, Stockwood), Cllr Patrick McAllister (Green, Hotwells & Harbourside) and Cllr Tim Kent (Lib Dem, Hengrove & Whitchurch Park).
The draft budget will be discussed by the strategy and resources committee on February 3 ahead of a vote at full council on February 25.