Next term, the 20 existing patrollers will not return to work, Barking and Dagenham council leader Darren Rodwell confirmed on Thursday.
The £165,000-a-year annual service would be over at the “end of March”, he said.
“We want the service to be delivered, we just can’t afford to pay for it,” he said.
And another Baby Seal looks up trustingly as the club descends...
Pat Fredericks, 69, has worked as a lollipop lady at Ripple Primary School for 37 years.
“I think it’s a big shame,” said Pat, who has received no official notification that the service will end.
“We aren’t just stopping the cars, we also educate the children on how to cross. It will be very dangerous without us.”
I often drive through Dagenham and I have to say, you're doing a pretty lousy job, if the number of kids blithely walking out in front of me without looking is anything to go by...
"I often drive through Dagenham"
ReplyDeleteOh that's you is it, Jools? In the blacked out, pimped up and blinged-2-da-max armoured plated 4X4 Drug Dealer special? What happened to the Hummer?
:p
When I moved from NI to the GB city I have lived in for several decades my flabber was ghasted.
ReplyDeleteLollipoppers are deployed at Traffic-light controlled pedestrian crossings near schools to press the button. When vehicles stop at red light and green man appears lollipopper walks onto road holding their "Stop" sign.
Utter lunacy and waste of taxpayers' money which continues today.
"What happened to the Hummer?"
ReplyDeleteOoooh, I'd love a Humvee! :)
"Utter lunacy and waste of taxpayers' money which continues today."
Yup. So I'll shed no tears when they go. Most of them are unneeded, and actually hindering the learning of proper road safety.