SCHOOL leaders have submitted a formal request to Barnsley Council and South Yorkshire Police to review traffic movement on a gridlocked town centre street due to rising concerns with illegal parking and speeding - after a youngster was struck by a car.
Eastgate, which connects to Regent Street, became home to Trinity Academy St Edward’s last September - but the single-lane, one-way road has since become clogged at drop-off and pick-up times.
Having been granted temporary permission for a two-year stay at Eastgate House while its new premises is built on Broadway, Kingstone, school leaders told the Chronicle this week that they have been in touch with the council’s parking enforcement team - and the police - in a bid to boost safety.
Principal Mark Allen told the Chronicle: “A request to South Yorkshire Police and the council to review the traffic movement on Eastgate has been submitted - we are concerned about the speed that cars travel down the street.
“After an initial period of parents stopping outside school last year, we placed cones outside to prevent this and to ensure our children were safe leaving the building - this is our paramount concern.
“We now have two year groups and new parents that need to become familiar with how we operate.
“We have been working with the parking enforcement team, who have been doing active patrols in the car park on County Way.
“As Eastgate and the car park are public highways it is very difficult for us to ‘police’ anything, however we are very keen to keep working with businesses on the road and around the area.
“We will communicate with parents again this week and place emphasis on not stopping on Eastgate, we will also communicate with parking enforcement and ask if they could support, too.
“They are going to be monitoring the road throughout the year - I am hopeful that this work and subsequent work we are doing will enable us all to be safe and be free from obstructions on Eastgate.”
Coun James Higginbottom, cabinet spokesperson for environment and highways, confirmed businesses had lodged complaints about parents’ parking on Eastgate and vowed to step up patrols.
“We enforce parking restrictions in our borough to improve road safety, keep traffic flowing freely and help make sure our roads and footpaths are safe for everyone to use,” he added.
“Following reports, we recently stepped up our traffic enforcement presence in the area to make sure people were parking safely.
“We will continue to monitor the situation and take action against anyone who parks on yellow lines or alongside a dropped kerb.”
