The business paper just published for next week’s Council meeting contains a significant update for those in the Oakville community.
I have been fighting for upgrades to the footpaths, parking, traffic and pedestrian safety around Oakville Public School for many years. Congestion has been worsened by the influx of people and vehicles since the school became a transport interchange for students from other schools. The school has swelled with students coming Hills Shire suburbs like the Gables from east of Boundary Road. This will remain the case until a new Primary school is built there, easily still over a year away.
Below is an email I sent Council staff over five years ago. I drew maps pointing out the lack of footpaths. I asked for costings. I implored that these works be put on our capital works program.
In parallel, many thanks are due to the advocacy of the school under successive Principals, the Oakville PS P&C, and Jane Soper its President.
The new development I am pleased to report is that detailed costings and engineering plans have finally been completed in an effort to make the project “shovel ready”. They have been endorsed by our local traffic committee, and parts are already funded.
Here is the Agenda of the Local Traffic Committee from its meeting of Monday 9 February 2026 containing the report and recommendations (which were passed).
Here is the document with the detailed maps and engineering drawings that accompanied the Report: “AT8toItem4.1.2. – School Safety Treatments Fronting Oakville Public School Concept Plans, Proposed Treatment Plans and Median Island Stop Treatment Plans“.
The bad news is that the most needed parts of this plan remain unfunded unless I can persuade my colleagues to prioritise it for the 2027-2028 budget.
An upgrade to intersection of Oakville, Ogden and Hanckel Road will be funded under the Federal blackspot program. This will include new median strips with pedestrian refuge islands.
Extending kerb and guttering on the school sides of both Ogden Road and Oakville Road has been provisionally costed at $155,000 and is unfunded.
Creating new kerb and guttering on the opposite sides of both Ogden and Oakville Roads have been provisionally costed at $250,000 and is unfunded.
1.5m footpath works to fill in the gaps between the existing footpaths and extend down the school side of Oakville Road have been provisionally costed at $80,000 and is unfunded.
I attended Oakville school, as did my sister, my son, and currently both my Nephews. Our family’s association with the school goes back to 1978.
I will continue to advocate for these works. I am told that these plans make it easier for Council to make the case for grant funding.
Highlights from the report just made public include:
• “There is generally poor differentiation between unpathed pedestrian areas, along the school frontage and the edge of the roadway, which is a potential source of conflict between pedestrians and vehicles accessing the parking at these locations.
• There is an absence of No Stopping signage to reinforce the mandatory No Stopping zone at the intersection of Ogden and Oakville Roads. The implementation of this signage may assist in clarifying where vehicles can and cannot be parked in proximity to the intersection.
• Some parents and carers began to arrive in the PM peak as early as 2:30pm to pick up children at 3:15pm when the school bell goes. During the time immediately following the afternoon school bell, queuing was observed in the northbound direction on Oakville Road approaching the intersection with Ogden Road. Most traffic had cleared by 3:30pm.
• Parking on both Ogden Road and Oakville Road, during afternoon peak, is at full capacity in all directions by 3pm and extends well beyond the limits of the School Zone signage at each frontage. Parent parking along Hanckel Road, east of the intersection with Oakville Road, and further north on Oakville Road itself (north of the intersection with Hanckel Road) was also observed. Parking within the verge areas forces some students to walk along the road, adjacent to the parked vehicles.
• Whilst numbers of pedestrians were observed to cross Ogden Road the pedestrian movements were diffuse in nature, with parents accompanying their children in the direction of their parked vehicle rather than crossing at any observable desire line. As a result, a centralised crossing facility on Ogden Road was not recommended in the independent assessment as it is likely to be underutilised, with most pedestrians likely to continue crossing the road in locations nearest to their parked vehicles. Additionally, inclusion of pedestrian facilities would result in the loss of approximately 35m of parking on each side of the road.
• The continual northbound flow of traffic, on Oakville Road, which occurs between 3:15pm and 3:30pm in the PM peak and is impacted by vehicles that have departed Arndell Anglican College at 3:10pm, leaves little opportunity for pedestrians to cross Oakville Road at the identified pedestrian desire line being Oakville Road at the intersection of Ogden / Hanckel Roads. Figure 7 outlines the location at Ogden Road near Hanckel Road for installing traffic islands with pedestrian refuge facilities to assist safe pedestrian crossing and improve traffic.