Road safety at Friars Lane and Westgate Street near St Edmund's Catholic Primary in Bury St Edmunds needs addressing 'before something horrible happens' - Bennetts Companion Cars
A taxi company that transports children with special needs to school has branded access to the site ‘highly dangerous’ as it seeks a solution from the highway authority.
Sue Collins, 60, a passenger assistant with Bennetts Companion Cars, said the situation in Friars Lane and Westgate Street, Bury St Edmunds, was becoming ‘ridiculously fraught’.
Bennetts takes a number of children to the SEND unit at St Edmund’s Catholic Primary School, in Westgate Street, dropping off and picking up in narrow Friars Lane.
And residents have also voiced their concerns over safety, with one person – who asked not to be named – having witnessed young children ‘almost knocked over and killed’.
A spokesperson for Suffolk County Council (SCC) said they were aware of the situation in the lane and were working with the school, drivers and residents to resolve it.
Ms Collins said: “Pedestrians with children, cyclists, residents and car drivers are being pushed further and further into an impossible situation. There is no room to manoeuvre, which means the cars have to reverse into Westgate Street to get out. I know I speak on behalf of all the drivers in apologising for any inconvenience.”
She urged people to contact SCC to try to get this resolved urgently ‘before something horrible happens’.
Bennetts co-owner Hannah Bennett said they had been in contact with SCC, and added: “I’m concerned mainly for the special needs children that are being transported to a location that is highly dangerous.”
While there is a parking and turning area on the school site, accessed via Friars Lane and put in when the unit was built, she said the space was ‘too tight’ for their vehicles.
St Edmund’s Primary’s executive head, Maria Kemble, added that access was made difficult when cars were parked opposite the entrance. She said they were working with SCC to address the issues raised.
Vivien Gainsborough Foot, chairman of the Churchgate Area Association, said ‘parents are having to park on the pavements and it is becoming increasingly dangerous for pedestrians and, particularly, little ones’.
The SCC spokesperson said their passenger transport team had visited the area with partners from the West Suffolk Council parking enforcement team and local police safer neighbourhood teams and were looking into what could be done to keep children and parents safe.
The school had hoped to reduce the amount of traffic in the street to make it safer to cycle, scoot or walk to school, as well as improve the air and environment and reduce inconsiderate parking.
