PARENT power has won the day at a Barrhead school after a lengthy campaign for improved safety.

Mums and dads were jubilant this week after hearing that £5,000 has finally been allocated to erect safety fencing right down Roebank Drive from St Mark’s Primary.

Parents have long campaigned for the safety barriers to stop children – eager to get home – from running out on to the busy road at peak times.

Earlier this year the situation got so bad, parents had to form a human chain at 3pm to stop the children from being pushed and jostled on to the road.

For parents, the victory hasn’t come soon enough.

It comes the same week there were three near misses outside the school with children narrowly escaping being knocked down.

After an appeal by Councillor Betty Cunningham, Barrhead, Neilston and Uplawmoor Area Committee voted to spend £5,000 on fencing outside the school right down to the junction with Aurs Drive.

Parents are delighted with the long-awaited decision.

Concerned mum Mary McNamee said: “This is fantastic news.” She added: “It has been a long time in coming – a year next month – but it should make all the difference.

Hopefully the barriers will be installed as soon as possible.” Almost a year ago the Parent Teacher Association started campaigning for safety measures outside the school. Some barriers were erected directly outside the school in January, along with a fence separating the playground from the school car park.

But parents felt these measures didn’t go far enough.

Each day parents would take turns to stand outside the school at 3pm to ensure the children stayed on the pavement, and they kept a log book of all the incidents.

Grandmother of five Councillor Cunningham, took up the parents’ case, and has spent the past year lobbying for action.

She took the plea for cash to the area committee last month and the community representatives agreed to consider the proposal.

Fighting her case at Thursday evening’s meeting, she said: “The fencing is crucial to that school. If these railings are not put up it’s going to end in a death.” Speaking after the area committee agreed to fund the project, Councillor Cunningham beamed: “I am over the moon.

“I’m delighted for the sake of the safety of the children.”