A pupil from Lumen Christi Primary School was struck by a vehicle on Friday afternoon.

A parent approached The Courier at the scene, demanding the council look into a possible change of the speed limit. 

After questions from The Courier on Monday, City of Ballarat chief executive Anthony Schinck said the council had previously applied for a change this year. 

“An application was sent to VicRoads earlier this year seeking consideration for approval to assign a time-based 40km/h zone on the main carriageway of Whitelaw Avenue between Royale Street and Warrina Drive,” he 

said. 

“While this was not supported at that time, the application has been re-submitted to VicRoads today.”

VicRoads regional director Ewen Nevett told The Courier on Friday VicRoads would “favourably consider” any application to reduce the road to 50km/h. 

Whitelaw Avenue is split into two sections, with a service road closer to the school having a 40km/h zone. However parents say that due to a lack of parking in the area they sometimes need to park on the main road. 

Mr Nevett said when the road was reviewed in March this year there were low volumes of pedestrians who crossed the road due to the use of the service

road. 

Mr Schinck said the road was considered a “link road” by the City of Ballarat which is the highest status local road. 

“By design, it is intended to carry high volumes of various traffic types and it consequently has retained the posted 60km/h limit,” he said. 

Lumen Christi Primary School principal Murray Macdonald told The Courier on Friday he had already raised the issue of the speed limit with the City of Ballarat.

A recent upgrade to the service road meant parking was relocated to the south side of the service road, to ensure students and carers did not have to cross the road during busy pick-up and drop-off times, according to Mr Schinck, who said Doug Dean Reserve, located near the school, provided significant off-street parking connected to the school by a walking trail.