CALLS have been made for Westbury Infant and Junior schools to make parents who drive children to school aware of problems being caused by people “simply parking wherever they want.”
Issues of blocked roads and damaged grass verges in the Oldfield Park area were discussed at a meeting between Selwood Housing, Wiltshire Council and Westbury Town Council.
Westbury Town Council’s highways, planning and development committee heard that one of the actions recommended was for the committee to consider an experimental traffic order for the area.
A report to the committee said the experimental traffic order could be time limited to target the worse times of the day and may be more acceptable to residents.
Chair, cllr Ian Cunningham said, “An experimental traffic order would be cheaper than a full traffic order and would also allow an opportunity to gauge the success and impact of school parking. This would be supported with targeted enforcement.”
Other suggestions at the meeting had included a media campaign, fire engine visits to give people an idea of where the problems were, and spot checks by PCSOs.
Cllr Sheila Kimmins suggested, “Could we ask the clerk to write to the local schools in the area? I think Oldfield Park is where they park around the road for the children for the junior school and infant school.
“We could ask the clerk to write to the schools to say there is a problem and could they also contact parents about the parking issues it’s causing within the Oldfield Park area.”
Cllr Ian Cunningham said that was a good idea and added, “There’s a concern there’s a car park [nearby] that could be used and isn’t being used and time restrictions might force people to use that, rather than making the road impassable, particularly at school times.”
Cllr Mike Kettlety said, “This problem of parking on grass verges is particularly bad in the Oldfield Park area and I think we’ve talked about it for a long time and nothing seems to be happening. We ought to get a move on here and do something about it.
“I’ve had so many complaints from people about grass being churned up, mud being left all over the road, over footpaths and generally speaking, people simply parking where they want on grass verges in areas which we ought to give some form of protection to.”
Members voted unanimously to send the issue to Wiltshire Council for consideration and for a letter to be written to the schools.
