Hillbrook Anglican School accuses Brisbane City Council of ignoring pleas to fix pedestrian crossing

A major Brisbane school has accused Brisbane City Council of ignoring its concerns about the safety of students for the past five years. It comes after a student was hit by a car last week.

The pedestrian crossing on busy Pickering St, Enoggera, where a student was struck last week.

AN Enoggera school says Brisbane City Council has ignored repeated calls for action to improve safety on a crossing used by many of its students.

Hillbrook Anglican School levelled the accusation at the council after one of its students was hit by a car on nearby Pickering St last week.

The student suffered minor injuries and returned to school that week.

In a letter to parents after the incident, the school’s leadership team said: “Over the past five years we have made numerous submissions to the Brisbane City Council about our concerns for the safety of our students at this particular crossing.”

“We have forwarded another submission to our local councillor after yesterday’s incident and we thank those in our community who are taking a similar course of action.”

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A petition started by former student Oliver Manias after last week’s incident has already been signed by 394 people.

Introducing her petition she said this crossing point, at 229 Pickering St, was dangerous not only for students, but also for cyclists, parents of childcare centre children and local residents using Gaythorne rail station.

“Students from Hillbrook School have been injured by cars, the latest incident being this week, thankfully only minor injuries,” she said.

“Currently at this intersection the combination of limited visibility and confusion over give way rules causes motorists to perform unsafe manoeuvres.”

In its letter, the school asked parents to remind their children that the refuge island at the crossing had a limited capacity and students should not use it unless there was room.

Councillor Andrew Wines (LNP, Enoggera) has started his own petition, calling on the council his party controls, to upgrade the pedestrian refuge on Pickering St to a signalised pedestrian crossing.

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In the introduction to his petition, Cr Wines said he was drawing people’s attention to the crossing “no longer being a safe and viable option to cross Pickering St”.

“This pedestrian refuge is no longer safe to use when crossing in heavy traffic and can no longer handle the volume of pedestrians and school students using this refuge on a daily basis,” he said.

It has been signed by 299 people.

Cr Wines said he had been planning to announce, as an election commitment, a second crossing on Pickering St (near Dalmarnock St), to be built next financial year.

“But I wasn’t sure that was going to be satisfactory under these circumstances. I thought ‘let’s see if we can’t get a set of lights’,” he said.

Cr Wines said he had worked with the school on a number of safety issues in recent years, including on Hurdcotte St, where the school is located, and on getting a signalised crossing near Enoggera station in 2018.

Labor’s Enoggera candidate Jonty Bush said there needed to be conversations among stakeholders about making the crossing safer.

Ms Bush said this should include who (motorists or pedestrians) should have priority there, when and how.

She hit out at Cr Wines, calling his petition a “red herring” and saying he had not even contacted the local State MP for Stafford Dr Anthony Lynham (Labor) about the issue.

“If he wanted it done it would be done. If he wanted safety measures to be put in at that school it would have happened,” she said.