Parents warned to park away from school

Simon Wallis, headteacher of Barnacre Road Primary School, is once again warning drivers to park at Sainsbury’s nearby instead of causing an obstruction in Barnacre Road.

Mr Wallis said: “This is an ongoing problem and occurs outside many schools. We have spoken to parents repeatedly as we have an arrangement with Sainsbury’s. It is a bit of an extra walk, but the time spent manoeuvring and finding somewhere to park, would be saved by going to Sainsbury’s.

“It is a much safer place to park and would not cause an inconvenience for our neighbours - the residents. We are lucky to have this arrangement with Sainsbury’s but parents don’t seem to be using it.”

One resident inconvenienced by the increase in parked cars is Ian Duxbury, 59, who has lived in Barnacre Road for four years. He said: “One side of Barnacre Road is completely blocked, meaning two cars in opposite directions can’t pass. I am also disappointed to see people ignoring the yellow A boards warning of the dangers of parking there.”

Dwayne Lowe, LCC area highways manager for Ribble Valley, said: “The most effective way of tackling this is for schools to work with parents to alert them to the problems they are causing, and encourage them to park further away. Traffic regulations introduced by the county council have very little impact in solving these issues due to the short term and temporary nature of the problem, and are not usually supported by residents as the regulations limit parking availability throughout the day. We will discuss the issues at the next of our regular meetings with the police.”