PARENTS of pupils attending Forest and Sandridge School have called for safety to be improved at a crossing point near to the school.
Parents say that the crossing point on Snarlton Lane – at the rear of the school – is an ‘accident waiting to happen’. They have complained that the entrance/exit to a path on Snarlton Lane that leads to the rear of the school is concealed and hard to spot; and they have called for signage to be erected to alert drivers, or for a formal crossing point to be installed.
“The crossing is really dangerous, more so at school time,” said one parent speaking to Melksham News. “With it being hard to spot, it’s only a matter of time before a child is run over. It only needs to be a zebra crossing or something to highlight the fact that school children are crossing there. I can’t really understand why Wiltshire Council can’t seem to see the problem – when did they last come and check?”
Wiltshire Council has said that it is ‘unlikely’ that the crossing point at Snarlton Lane will meet the requirements for a controlled crossing point.
A spokesperson for the council said, “There is nationally-set criteria for the introduction of controlled crossing points, which includes the amount of daily footfall and vehicular traffic. There are also minimum requirements for the size/dimensions of a controlled crossing point, which this location is unlikely to meet.”
Concern about safety on Snarlton Lane was previously raised by residents of the lane in late 2020. They highlighted that parents from Forest and Sandridge School were parking in the lane, using private driveways to turn, and using the end of the lane as a ‘car park’ during drop off/pick up times at the school. They also raised concern about the speed of some drivers and similar to the concerns raised recently by parents, said that it was ‘an accident waiting to happen’.