PARENTS have hit out at Wiltshire Council for failing to deal with parking chaos outside Forest and Sandridge School.
They have called on the council’s Road Enforcement Team to do more to tackle congestion and illegal parking following two near accidents in recent weeks.
One parent told Melksham News last week, “The parking is horrendous, with people ignoring the yellow lines all up the road outside the school and then actually parking on the only designated crossing outside of the school. Children are having to step into the road to see past the cars to see if it is safe to cross because the cars are obstructing the view of the road.
“There have been two occasions in the last few weeks where a child has nearly been hit by a car trying to see if the road is clear to cross.
“Both the school and residents have reported it to Wiltshire Council who say they are too short staffed to send enforcement officers out, but surely they have a duty to safeguard the children attending the school?
“It has also been reported to the police who say it is the council’s responsibility to enforce the parking.
“Children in years 5 and 6 are allowed to walk home by themselves, so are at greater risk of being harmed whilst trying to cross the road unsupervised.
“Is it going to take a child to get hit and killed before anyone steps up to do anything? It’s dreadful that the parents parking outside the school feel it’s okay to put the children at risk of harm by making it dangerous to cross the road; would they not care if it was their child that was hit?”
On Tuesday last week, the school sent a message to parents saying, “Dear Parents, It was noted today that the wet weather brought unsafe driving and parking conditions to both parents and children. Mr Thomson has reported the illegally parked vehicles to both the Police & the Road Enforcement Team at Wiltshire Council. We have been advised to alert parents that they will be issued a parking ticket and possibly towed away if this happens again with enforcement officers on patrol. The safety of the children is our priority.”
Cllr Dr Mark McClelland, Cabinet Member for Transport at Wiltshire Council, said: “We work with schools to develop and implement travel plans, which aim to promote safe, more sustainable and active travel.
“Forest & Sandridge School has a travel in place and through this plan we are working with the school to address issues around school travel and parking.
“Double yellow lines and zig-zag “school keep clear” lines are in place showing where parking is prohibited and civil enforcement officers are in regular attendance.
However, there are hundreds of schools across Wiltshire and it would be impractical to maintain a daily presence.”
In May this year, planning permission was granted by Wiltshire Council to increase the size of school, despite strong opposition from local councillors and some local residents.
Neighbouring residents said that the current road infrastructure, school drop-off area and limited available parking were already ‘extremely congested’ and ‘dangerous’ and would be unable to cope with the additional traffic.
