Echuca East crossing will live to see another few weeks

But following a campaign from the school community, council will keep the crossing for the first four weeks of next term.

What happens after that is unclear but principal Lyn Strachan said it was a small win.

“When we received the email last week, we were super excited,” she said.

“While this is a baby step, and we appreciate the consideration, we know there is still a long way to go to finding a satisfactory outcome for all.”

Active Transport Echuca East Group (ATEEG) also welcomed the news.

“It is indeed positive news that this very busy crossing at Echuca East will remain in place once the school term begins for an additional four weeks,” ATEEG's Jodi Ujimoto said.

“We are hopeful the extra time will enable the council to find a permanent solution for the safety of local children as we want every child in Echuca to be able to safely walk or cycle to school.”

Council’s chief executive Declan Moore said council would be open to discussion on what the next step would be.

“The council has offered to work with both school principals from Echuca East and Rochester Primary School, in the first few weeks of next term, to transition the operation of the crossings,” he said.

Member for Murray Plains Peter Walsh said while the email from Mr Moore was a step in the right direction, the future was still unknown.

“The council has made it clear the long-term future of the crossing will be dependent on the next traffic flow audit,” Mr Walsh said.

“And while there is no doubt the crossing will easily exceed the required number of cars to pedestrians for its peak usage times the next audit may not be until this time next year.’’

Mr Walsh said the four-week compromise was fantastic news for the school, but it was still hard to get overly excited until all the fine print had been resolved.

“Mr Moore and the shire have taken a big step towards a solution for the school but until we know all the details and the responsibilities of everyone involved in this campaign it is still a challenge to be resolved,” he said.

The council's response outlined two possible options for the school's consideration.

One option would be for the school to employ a crossing guard the council would train.

“On the surface that could be a satisfactory interim solution but there is also a risk this could be the thin edge of the wedge, setting a precedent that the cost, and responsibility, of running crossings will fall back on the schools,” Mr Walsh said.

Ms Strachan also said there were issues with this option as it wouldn't meet the standards set by the Department of Education.

The other would be for the school to continue to put flags at the crossing, but it would not be supervised.

“While as a school we will take these options into consideration, we are hoping there will be a better agreement we can come to,” Ms Strachan said.

She said the school was thankful for the community's support during this campaign but it was not over yet.

“We know we meet the requirements to keep this crossing and we're going to fight until the end,” she said.