Chiswick Parents School Parking Causing Concern
Move to get parents to park away from entrance to two schools goes ahead
Chiswick Councillors have supported a move to change the way parents drop and pick up their children in their cars outside two local primary schools.
Concerns about safe delivery and pick up of children at William Hogarth and St. Mary’s Catholic School had led to a petition being launched asking the Council to make changes near the shared entrance amid fears that an accident could happen.
The problem centred around a turning area at the end of Duke Road, a cul-de-sac which is at the entrance to St. Mary’s Catholic School and one of the entrances to William Hogarth school. The latter has another entrance on a nearby street.
One local councillor said that it was felt by some residents and teachers that it was “a tragedy waiting to happen”, as parents pulled in and turned their vehicles at a time when there were many pedestrians, adults and children, coming in and out of the schools.
Hounslow Council officials suggested a number of options to discourage this school traffic, including either removing or extending nearby residents' parking bays, or placing No Stopping markings at the entrance.
At the meeting of the Chiswick Area Forum, Councillor Peter Thompson (pictured below) proposed that an option to extend residents' parking bays would be most effective and cost beneficial.
The reasoned response was that this was a means to prevent extra traffic outside the school gates and by limiting space for turning and waiting would ensure that a drop off took place further from the school gates. During school hours it also meant that emergency vehicles would not have to negotiate extra cars parked or waiting in the cul-de-sac.
Chiswick Councillors voted to support the proposal on the motion presented by Councillor Thompson, who is a Turnham Green Ward Councillor and Leader of the Conservative Group on Hounslow Council.
Cllr. Thompson stated: “As a parent myself with children at one of these schools I can fully appreciate why busy parents dashing to school with small children want to get as close as possible to drop off their kids. However having a large number of cars turning around in a limited space is very risky.
"This measure will hopefully make parents think twice before driving down to the very end of Duke Road but what we really need is for a small handful of parents to use a bit of commonsense!"
November 23, 2012