Telford school boy designs new road safety sign
A new road sign, which has been designed by a school boy, is to be erected outside a Telford school in a bid to promote road safety awareness.
Ryan Ellis, aged 7, of Lightmoor Primary School, designed the sign as part of a competition set by Telford Police and Bourneville Village Trust at Lightmoor Village.
The idea for the competition came after a number of traffic issues came to light in the Lightmoor area, including speeding and inconsiderate parking which contributed to two road traffic collisions.
Pupils from Lightmoor Primary School set about designing posters with a view to encouraging motorists to watch their speed, park carefully and to be aware of other road users.
Community Support Officer Ann Moore, of the Dawley and Hamlets Local Policing Team, and a representative from BVT visited the school today and from the 50 designs chose winners from three age categories.
Luke Driver won the 5/6 year-old section, Ryan Ellis won the 7/8 year-old age category and Megan Bradburn won the 9/10 year-old age category.
The overall winner is Ryan Ellis, who will now have his design turned into a permanent road sign paid by Bourneville Village Trust, which will be located outside of the school.
CSO Moore said that the standard of entries was extremely high. She praised the young people for all of their hard work and effort.
She said: “Issues with parking and speed at the Lightmoor Way location were first drawn to our attention following a high visibility patrol at the start and end of school as part of Operation SOS (Safer Outside Schools).
“We liaised with Bourneville Village Trust, who themselves were already aware of the increasing safety risk to road users and pedestrians, particularly school children at this location.
“After a couple of brain storming meetings and numerous attempts at asking residents and visitors to park reasonably and considerately, we decided to involve the young people from the estate and tackle the problems with a multi agency approach and introduced the idea of the design a road sign competition.”
She added: “We had around 50 entries and they were all extremely good. They were really bright and colourful and there were some really good ideas.
“Most of the children had completed their entries in their own time after school.
“The multi agency approach between ourselves, Bourneville Village Trust, Telford & Wrekin Council and Lightmoor Primary School was extremely successful and has certainly helped to promote the road safety awareness message. We look forward to seeing the road sign outside the school.”
Children who took part in the competition were awarded with Cadbury’s chocolate from Bourneville and West Mercia Police goodies. The Odeon Cinema also supplied cinema passes to the winners to a film of their choice.
