PARENTS at Matravers School have expressed concerns about the safety of the school run due to heavy traffic and bins on pavements.
They say the walk to and from the school is a ‘death trap’ with an accident waiting to happen and are calling for urgent action.
One school run dad told White Horse News, “West End is a death trap and twice a week my son and I have to walk most of it in the road due to it being bins day and bins being put out and left on the pavements outside the houses.
“We have to squeeze on the thinnest of pavements whilst walking the busiest roads in Westbury. How a child, parent, cyclist or oldie has not been killed on this road yet is beyond me.”
He has written a letter to Wiltshire Police and local MP, Andrew Murrison, to highlight the problems he and others face when walking children to school.
He added, “Andrew Murrison, I ask you to walk it at 8.30am on a weekday morning and reply with your thoughts; I hope to read your thoughts if alive. I then have to walk Eden Vale Road which appears to be a race track. Can I just confirm this is 30mph? Maybe it would be an idea to lower the speed limit during school drop off and pick up times to reduce the risks or for Wiltshire Police to spend the morning or afternoon there banking some money giving out some points and issuing fines.
“If anyone does choose to walk this route after reading this, remember to duck if two lorries meet because you may lose your head on their wing mirror, close your eyes if you’re walking towards the traffic because you can’t see for dust and fumes, enjoy the spray from the wheels on wet days and heat from trucks on hot days and when you get near the roundabout at the end, get ready to either give way to the lorries as they mount the pavements or just jump into one of the front gardens. Lastly on bin days get ready to hurdle black recycling boxes, or walk in the road to avoid the bins. Good luck, you will need it.
“As a dog walker, keen cyclist and house owner in Westbury I enjoy the green fields and country walks but at what costs to the public having to walk these through roads?
“If there are new homes, power plants and solar farms popping up everywhere in Westbury, why not a bypass?
“It keeps being talked about and it will upset some and please others. Everyone’s counting the cars, lorries, tanks, cranes, tractors, combines, bailers horse and carts etc. but does anyone actually walk the walks that this traffic affects? If they did, the bypass would be built tomorrow.”
