Solar Powered Belisha Beacon Improves Teaching Of Road Safety

Product: Solabel

Customer: St Richard's Primary

Location: London Borough of Richmond

In October 2020, Simmonsigns was contacted by a representative of St Richard's Primary School in Richmond South West London. St Richard's Primary had an innovative approach to teaching road safety and had a vision to install a mini pedestrian crossing in the playground. This project would enable the school to safely teach the children road safety awareness with a true-to-life crossing.

At Simmonsigns, we have been dedicated to providing solutions to enable safer routes to and from schools for over 20 years. We were delighted to be given the opportunity to contribute to the children’s road awareness learning.

We embraced the project and designed a suitable set of battery-powered Belisha beacons and posts based on our solar-powered pedestrian crossing beacon. This provided the children with an excellent tool to learn with that is also environmentally friendly and easy to use.

Solabel is our first tried and tested solar-powered Belisha beacon installed at sites such as Tesco superstore. It is a robust pedestrian crossing light ideal for an off-grid installation. The beacon is clearly visible throughout the day and features a low-impact design solar panel suitable for any urban environment.

London & South East Area Sales Manager, Duncan Wells, said, "When I first spoke to the school, I was instantly interested in supporting the project. I knew it would have a positive and important impact on the children learning about road safety in a realistic setting. We worked closely with the school to provide a safe environment for the children to practise their road safety learning. A key outcome of the project is to minimise the dangers of crossing the road. This will encourage more people to walk or cycle to school and have a positive impact on other initiatives. This excellent project by St Richard's Primary was completed in February 2021 and I was delighted to see the results of a good team effort."

St Richard's Primary said, "The parents and children have been very complimentary about the play road and, in particular, to the addition of the Belisha beacons. Our caretaker switches them on each morning and off each evening and then charges the battery over the weekend. They are so well made and we love them! The children are learning about road safety within their curriculum and the play road enables them to practise scooting and cycling in a safe environment."

The project has since been featured in the Richmond and Twickenham Times and on the Richmond County Council website.

If you'd like to install a Belisha beacon crossing at your school, please contact Cheryl on 01952 217961 or email sales@simmonsigns.co.uk.