From Cllr Harry Smith, Chair, Wirral Highways Cttee:-

I WRITE in response to the letters (Mailbox, October 6) regarding the Bidston Road/Birkenhead School issue.

Mr Haggett, Headmaster at Birkenhead School, suggests we check the road at "3.30pm every weekday afternoon" (incidentally, it would be difficult to check the road at 3.30pm every morning) as it is virtually impossible for pupils to see gaps in the traffic and that that affects road safety.

Does he refer to the traffic generated by the parents who use cars to pick up their children from the school? If that is the case, Mr Haggett would be better advised to suggest to parents that they, at least, park some distance from the school. Or would that be asking too much?

Cllr Kelly calls for greater control of traffic on Bidston with the introduction of pedestrian refuges and a roundabout. If only it were that simple. Cllr Kelly's group are merely makeweights on the Council and have no responsibilty for the Highways budget.

We in the Labour Party have to ensure that the limited budget is spent in the areas of greatest priority. It is not a perfect situation, but a realistic one, and we do not have the luxury of dreaming the dreams that makeweights do.

Holmlands Drive, Oxton, Birkenhead.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.