Madam,

In response to Cllr Jason Humphreys’ letter in last week’s Cambrian News about the lollipop service at Ysgol Eifionydd (‘Lollipop service should be reinstated - and quickly’).

Firstly, as a governor of Ysgol Eifionydd and a knowledgeable person, Cllr Humphreys would be aware that the last person to hold the post of lollipop person retired some years ago. Though there were attempts at the time to find a suitable person to refill the role, no applicant was found.

It is important to note that Plaid Cymru’s candidate was not asking for the lollipop service to be reinstated in the petition in question. She was in actual fact addressing the issue of road safety outside the school and the lollipop service was one of the options discussed, as well as having a pelican crossing/road markings and other measures.

Cllr Humphreys should be addressing the issue of road safety of local schoolchildren with the school and with Gwynedd Council rather than using the media to direct personal criticism towards the Plaid Cymru candidate.

As a school governor, Cllr Humphreys would have been made aware of Plaid Cymru’s involvement in addressing the issue of road safety outside the school months ago as the headmaster and Gwynedd Council’s Dafydd Meurig were photographed in the 19 January issue of the Cambrian News accepting the petition signed by numerous concerned parents. The only aim of the petition and involvement of Plaid Cymru is to raise awareness of and to create a safe passage to cross what is an extremely busy and dangerous road outside a local secondary school which should also be the primary concern of Cllr Humphreys – and not taking a ‘dig’ at Plaid Cymru’s local candidate which appears to be the case.

One grave concern appears to be the fact that Cllr Humphreys has been a Llais Gwynedd councillor since 2012. Why has he not addressed the issue of no lollipop person outside the secondary school prior to the local Plaid Cymru candidate announcing her election campaign? And how long has he been a school governor? Why has he not raised this issue with the headmaster when he was appointed back in February 2016?

In his letter, not once does Cllr Humphreys address the issue of the safety of local schoolchildren in his ward or how he intends to deal with the matter. I ask if his sole purpose here is to attack Plaid Cymru because he feels ‘left out’.

Maybe he should be correcting his mistake quickly and humbly and making better use of his time dealing with matters in his ward and working together with candidates from other political parties for the benefit of local people rather using his time to make ‘digs’ at Plaid Cymru.

Yours etc,

O G Jones, Chapel Street, Porthmadog.

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