A PETITION for safer roads outside a Marlborough primary school has been launched after a child was hit by a car.

Jennifer Sinclair, whose five-year-old daughter was hit by a car while walking to St Mary’s Church of England Primary School on Monday, has started a petition to make the roads around the primary safer for pupils and parents.

Ducks meadow, Isbury Road and Van Diemens around the school are all dead ends, but according to concerned parents see high volumes of traffic during school times.

The school gives out free parking permits to parents to use the George Lane car park nearby the school for drop offs, but on the Change.org petition – signed by nearly 200 people – Mrs Sinclair says a number of parents are not using these.

Victoria Diwell, whose son attends St Mary’s said: “There are clearly parents who think that walking 50 yards is beyond their capabilities and they park on double yellow lines, they do u-turns in the road, they mount the pavements.

“This is a school that not only is the primary school but it’s also the route into Marlborough from St John’s the secondary school.

“All of those children come down onto this road, and it’s an accident waiting to happen. An accident did happen this morning but it could be a lot worse.”

Ms Diwell said the school has sent “very strongly worded” emails out to parents to address the issues.

A Wiltshire Police spokesman said: “Our neighbourhood team in Marlborough is aware of ongoing traffic and parking issues at the school and have been providing support in the way of routine patrols during the start and end of the school day. We have also spoken to the school about liaising with the local authority around parking enforcement.”

Mrs Sinclair said she has contacted the police, Wiltshire Council and local MPs to lobby for change.

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“One of which will be meeting with me and walking to the school, to get a better feel of the traffic and see what measures we can put in place,” she said.

“If possible the result I would like to see is potentially a sign up saying “residents only parking” – as they are dead end roads anyway. Traffic wardens for the parking on double yellows and for parents to think twice before using these already very busy roads.”

Anne Schwodler, headteacher of St Mary’s said they are doing every it can to dissuade parents from illegally parking and since the school was built they had petitioned for more pavements and a no parking zone but have not had much back from the bids.

“The problem is that the roads are all dead ends, so if anyone parks on them to drop off then they have to turn around somewhere and come back in the same direction which causes chaos,” she said.

She said: “It is a small-ish group of parents that whatever you say are going to do it anyway – most are supportive. But it doesn’t take that many to insist on dropping their children on the roads outside the school to cause problems.

“It’s lucky the little girl was fine but that was this time and you wonder that it could have been much worse and that’s the worry of the school that someone is going to have a significant accident.”

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Wiltshire Council cabinet member for highways, Dr Mark McClelland said “It concerns me to hear of this incident.

“We would encourage all schools to continue educating parents to utilise the options in place to limit vehicles accessing the residential streets in the immediate vicinity of their schools.

“Wiltshire Council has been working with St Mary’s school to improve how children access the site, and a number of improvements have already been developed; including improvements to the warning of the school to motorists on George Lane and Cherry Orchard.”

“Additionally, a pedestrian crossing on George Lane is currently under consultation, with a view to implementation this summer ahead of the new school year in September.

“The consultation period runs to July 5 and we would encourage comments to be submitted. Clearly we don’t want any further incidents at St Mary’s school and we will work with the school to ensure that this situation is monitored and further safety measures are encouraged.

"The school are able to provide a number of free parking permits to parents for George Lane Car Park to drop off and collect children, removing the need to access the streets in the vicinity of the school. The proposed pedestrian crossing will provide pedestrians an improved facility when walking from areas north of George Lane accessing St Mary’s Primary School, and the route to St Johns via Van Diemens Close and Isbury Road’

"Through the Taking Action On School Journeys initiative, the council continues to work with both St Mary’s School, and all schools across the county to improve routes to schools and encourage alternatives to car travel for these journeys. I would encourage those concerned to discuss these concerns with the school, and further improvements can be investigated where necessary and supported locally. In the meantime we continue to enforce parking restrictions in the vicinity, and where other issues are witnessed, such as driving on the footway, these must be passed to the Police.”

The cabinet member added that it will continue to enforce parking restrictions and where problems arise these must be passed to the police.

To support the petition, please click the link here.