One-way plan for 'road rage' street outside school where headteacher doubles up as traffic warden
One-way plan for 'road rage' street outside school where headteacher doubles up as traffic warden
St George and St Martin Catholic Academy has been included in the council's Safer Route to School programme again
Worried parents have backed plans to introduce road safety measures on 'road rage' street outside their children's school. Stoke-on-Trent City Council is looking at bringing in traffic calming measures near St George and St Martin's Catholic Academy, in Birches Head, or making Boulton Street one-way.
It comes after headteacher Dawn Farmer - who has been forced to control traffic herself - raised concerns over pupils' safety when entering and leaving the site. Now mums and dad have welcomed the proposals.
Julia Beech, aged 34, who has a daughter in year 3, said: "The parking is horrendous. I had an incident where someone had parked on the corner and a child ran out and I had to swerve to miss the kid, I was only doing 5mph, but I scraped the car.
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"The school times are changing, I don't know if that's to combat the amount of traffic coming here, but they're starting earlier and finishing a bit later from this term. The school is doing what it can and Mrs Farmer is amazing.
"She is like a traffic warden shouting at the cars because a lot of people don't pay attention to the zig zag lines."
Rebecca Smith, 42, who has a daughter in year 6, said: "It's a good idea to make Boulton Street one-way. I mentioned it to the school years ago, but they said it would encourage speeding, but they can put in speed bumps. In Burslem they made Macclesfield Street one-way and it's worked there.
"The school has tried to tackle the parking problem by giving out passes for people to park at Central Forest Park. Posters have been handed to the kids to get the message to parents about parking responsibly. But there's regular offenders who don't seem to care.
"A one-way system would be better as long as it's got speed bumps to stop them from bolting down here."
Claire Lambourne, 41, who has a daughter in year 6, agreed saying: "There's zig zag and double yellow lines outside the school but it doesn't deter people from stopping and there's not enough room for people to get past.
"I actually had an accident as there wasn't enough room and I couldn't go anywhere, and a car ended up hitting me. Making it a one-way road would be much better. They should think about making the street round the corner one-way as well as there's so much road rage.
"There's been a lot of near misses over the years. You see cars going up the kerbs and it gets very busy at school times."
Jackie Elliott lives on Boulton Street and also suggested putting in speed bumps. The 45-year-old, who has a daughter in year 3, said: "I live on the road, but my concern is if they make it one way they'll zip along here as they know there's no cars coming the other way. It would need some speed bumps as well.
"It's a tight road and there's another school close by so you get a lot of traffic. Something needs to be done, but it's what the fix is?"
And Daniella Allen, aged 40, who has a daughter in year 1, said: "It needs to be one way, there's too many near misses. I've been involved in near misses because people don't know how to park and the yellow lines are redundant. It's a bit nuts."
Stoke-on-Trent City Council says the school has again been included in its Safer Route to School programme. A spokesman said: "Concerns outlined from the headteacher regarding child road safety on Boulton Street, Birches Head, has resulted in this scheme being included in the LTP Safer Route to School programme for possible highway improvements.
"This may include traffic calming measures and introducing a one-way system."
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