Concerns have been raised with Cheshire East Council over road safety outside an Alsager school.
Edward Byrne, headteacher of St Gabriel’s Catholic Primary School and Pre-School, Well Lane, said he was “very concerned” about the traffic and safety of children being dropped off and collected from school.
Cheshire East ward councillor Brian Drake raised the issue to the council in an attempt to find a solution.
Coun Drake has suggested enforcing a one-way system, extending the car park by the side of the school, sending a letter to a property exacerbating the situation by parking vans and cars outside the house, monitoring the road for solutions by Cheshire East Highways and requesting a police presence at critical times.
The customer service officer for the council responded and confirmed that the request had been added to the cash-strapped council’s local measures programme for “consideration as part of future years’ funding allocations”.
The response said: “The local measures budget is limited and must be prioritised across the borough, and for the current financial year the programme of works has already been agreed and is underway.
“The locations in Alsager will be assessed alongside other outstanding requests when future funding becomes available.
“We will provide a further update once the next programme is confirmed.”
They added that after looking at the school on Google Maps, the “school keep clear” markings appear to be worn and would “benefit from refreshing” to discourage parking on the bend outside the school, and enable enforcement.
The Alsager Planning, Environment and Community Committee discussed the issue on Tuesday, 25th August.
Coun Stephen Butterfield, who chaired the committee, said: “The response from the highways officer is very unhelpful. It’s remiss to not answer or even reference the points specifically raised by the ward councillor.
“The issue that really concerns me is that a legitimate concern has been raised by the head teacher, governors and parents of the school, and this is the response we get.”
Coun Michael Unett said: “I don’t know why Cheshire East doesn’t try to pilot schemes like one-way systems. There are pilot initiatives that have taken place elsewhere in the country to implement one-way systems to try and mitigate parking issues and road safety issues.
“We need to be looking at what schemes can be implemented with the schools and Cheshire East for this school and, if successful, for other schools that experience this problem.”
The councillors discussed how the Cheshire East officer had outlined the “school keep clear” markings being “worn” but did not actually suggest repainting the markings.
Coun Sue Helliwell suggested the committee should write to Cheshire Police.
“Police have visited other schools in Cheshire East to warn parents and drivers about road safety, and they have been quite proactive in putting it on their social media pages,” Coun Helliwell said.
“I think we should write to Cheshire Police and see if they can visit the school at drop-off and pick-up times, to see what the situation is.”
Coun Butterfield added that parents at the school said the situation was “very dangerous.” Town clerk Julie Mason suggested asking Cheshire East what the cost would be for a survey on the local measures programme.
