On May 14, 2009, Municipal Spatial Planning Suport Programme in cooperation with Municipal Assembly of Mitrovica and Meto Bajraktari primary school organized a workshop on safe access to this primary school. This workshop brought together municipal officers, teachers, representatives of Handikos, Kosovo Police, parents, pupils and residents of the neighboring area.    

The purpose of the workshop was to identify the problems which pupils encounter on their way to school and at the same time to develop ideas for solving the problem by involving other actors as well.  

Drita Nushi, MuSPP advisor in Mitrovica emphasized the role of the Programme in supporting local authorities on the issues related to mobility and increasing pupils safety on their way to school.  

The workshop started with a short exploratory walk in the school neighborhood to identify particularly dangerous spots, take note of signage and to observe the traffic flow. Following the walk, participants filled in a questionnaire and moved to identifying key safety issues. These included illegal parking on pavements, the lack of traffic signs, zebra crossing or traffic lights in the school vicinity, the high speed of cars and two way traffic on the nearby road, the lack of fencing on a large construction site. However, one of the main identified issues was the lack of restriction on car access directly to the school compound, which poses particular hazard for the children walking out and coming into the school compound on foot. The ideas related to problems, solutions and other stakeholders were put on post-it notes and stuck on the map of the area. The problem identification session was followed by a discussion. Looking for solutions will be the topic of the next workshop scheduled for May 29, 2009.

Take a look on photo gallery: http://unhabitat-kosovo.org/?cid=2,381