Campaigners in Peasedown St John are calling for more to be done to increase children’s safety in a well used residential street.
Sunnyside View, located behind the local primary school, is a popular route for parents with children on their way to school. The street, which has been designated as part of a ‘homezone’ area where pedestrians and vehicles share the same road surface, has become overwhelmed with school traffic.
Local Peasedown 1st campaigner and resident Becci McCafferty, said: “I walk my children to and from school every day. What should be an easy task often turns into a fight with moving vehicles and people who want to park on footpaths – which have been designated as part of the safer route to school.”
The problem is part of wider issue concerning the lack of parking facilities within Peasedown for parents who want or need to take their children to school by car.
Becci added: “The need for more road safety in Sunnyside View is not in opposition to those who drive their children to school. What residents and parents are asking for are fewer vehicles using Sunnyside View as a quick route to school, with parking provision being provided somewhere else, such as the Recreation Field or another piece of land.”
As Peasedown St John has expanded over the last 15 years so has the size of the primary school. This has seen an increase in traffic and congestion through Bath Road and in neighbouring streets. Bath and North East Somerset Council has reacted by painting white walking symbols along a footpath in Sunnyside View following requests from Cllr Nathan Hartley in 2011.
Becci has written to B&NES Council’s Traffic and Safety Team asking for more to be done to increase children’s safety when walking to and from school in Sunnyside View from moving vehicles.
