Will Anyone Miss These?

It was a resourceful and valiant move, Ysgol Bro Cimeirch positioning two "children" initially in uniform and then clad in hi-visibility work-ware overlooking the nearby A525 outside their school in Llanrhaeadr.

But it achieved nothing.

I'm not aware of any motorist that actually slowed down because of the improvisation, certainly not after the first viewing caught their eye.

And why would they need to slow? After all, the main road over which the two "children" looked by-passes the school site (and the village) by some margin. What, then, was the point of the models?

• The school and is actually on a minor road (the old main road, before the by-pass).
• The school entrance is off a cul-de-sac.
• The school & village roads are subject to a 30 mph limit.
• The school is situate on a tight right angle bend immediately before a junction at which drivers inevitably need to stop, owing to volumes on the main road.

If that lot doesn't slow motorists down, nothing will. Added to which, at school times, when pupils are using the road network, the area outside the school is self-regulated by many manœuvring parents' cars.

And then there's the main road itself. After the twists and turns of the A525 north of Rhuthun/Ruthin comes the faster section from the Llanrhaeadr by-pass to the northernmost Dinbych by-pass roundabout, a well-engineered piece of road. Heading north from Pentre Llanrhaeadr, the Llanrhaeadr by-pass itself follows an enforced 40 mph section, after which traffic speeds can increase safely owing to a marked increase in visibility. It's a good, clear section of highway. There's nothing immediately on it.

I really cannot understand the wave of sympathy for these cardboard cut-outs that fooled no one.

Now compare the Llanrhaeadr situation with the primary schools in Rhuthun—Penbarras, Rhos Street & Borthyn—all of which are on a main road.

(Pictures taken Spring 2014 shortly after the models were clothed in yellow)