Pupils hurt on 'recipe for disaster' school routes

Routes for pupils walking to school are a "recipe for disaster" after a number of children were clipped by vehicles.

Mum Sian Blackham, who has started a petition with nearly 600 signatures in Wotton-under-Edge, said coaches "regularly, illegally, mount the footpath".

She said a child had been treated for a fractured arm and two others had been clipped in the last two weeks of term.

The council said a safety auditor would attend a public meeting.

Paths to Katharine Lady Berkeley's school and Kingswood Primary, in Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, involve narrow pavements, pinch points, traffic and a "convoy of coaches".

Ms Blackham said a safety audit for Wotton Road had been promised for the summer term but "hasn't happened".

"There has been a catalogue of accidents and near misses," she explained

She said in the last two weeks of term, three children were "clipped by vehicles on their way home from school on this stretch of road" in two separate incidents and one of them was treated for a fractured arm.

Kingswood is "very small and old village. The infrastructure of the road is outdated", she said.

On the Wotton Road, which is the main route for children walking to Katharine Lady Berkeley's, there is narrow point where cars need to give way and "where the real problems occur", she said.

"We've got children walking on a narrow pathway [and] cars parked along one side of the road. All of these factors with the school buses coming through this narrow pinch-point causes the buses to mount the kerb where the children are walking."

She said her 10-year-old, who is just getting used to walking to primary school independently, has been "really worried and scared about that".

"It's been a problem for a long time. People have been raising concerns and nothing's happened," she said.

She hopes the petition will convince Gloucestershire County Council's highways team, Applegates coaches and Euro Coaches that urgent action is needed "before there's a fatality".

A spokesperson for Gloucestershire County Council said that they are aware of the situation in Kingswood.

"A road-safety auditor from the council will be attending the public meeting on 14 August to review the issues and suggest measures that could be put in place to improve the situation," they said.

Kingswood Parish Council is holding the public meeting on Monday evening.

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