PLANS are being put in place to try and resolve an ongoing school parking issue in a village.
Parking during school times in Endon has been an issue for years, as parents dropping off and collecting pupils for the village’s three schools – St Luke’s, Endon Hall Primary School and Endon High School – are using side roads such as Platts Avenue, Clay Lake, Hillside Avenue, St George’s Avenue and Brookfield Avenue to park, causing access problems and road safety issues.
Double yellow lines have been painted in Brookfields Avenue to curb parking there and the same was proposed for Platts Avenue.
But after the majority of residents objected, the initiative was scrapped, leaving parking problems remaining.
Endon with Stanley Parish Council chairman Councillor John Sambrook, parish and county councillor Christina Jebb and vice-chairman councillor Mark Simcock met with police and school headteachers to address the issues.
Mr Sambrook said: “We agreed that more parking is needed and we need to discourage the use of cars and encourage the use of buses, bikes and walking instead.
“Parents from Endon Hall can use The Plough car park at the rear, and headteacher Victoria Lewis suggested that because people are still parking in Hillside Avenue to put No Parking notices around the school entrance and up the avenue to encourage parents to park at The Plough.
“Endon Tennis Club has offered St Luke’s use of its car park. The club wants to improve the car park at a cost of £600, so will probably apply to us for a grant at the end of the year, and will ask the school headteacher Joanne Kirkham for a contribution.
“As far as the high school is concerned this is a big problem because they haven’t got space to park and one of two suggestions were made and agreed.
“Myself and Christina have asked Staffordshire County Council if there is any way that drop-off facilities can be formed on either side of the road.
“Alison Gibson, the high school headteacher, will speak to the Scouts at Stockton Brook to see if their parking area can be used by parents.
“The police have agreed the bottom of Clay Lake is dangerous and said we should have double yellow lines, and that’s also something we’re going to discuss with the county council.
“As far as Platts Avenue is concerned, the police said residents had a chance and lost out, and there’s not a lot that can be done until we find additional parking.
“But, if someone is causing an obstruction the police can do something about it.”
Mrs Jebb added: “Henry Jebb has offered the tennis club a grant from his Local Community Initiative fund towards that work so they can make progress.”
Mr Shaw, of Platts Avenue, addressed the parish council at a recent meeting about his concerns over the school parking in the road.
He said: “In Leek Road, on the corner with Platts Avenue, the amount of parking that is occurring since Brookfield Avenue had double and single yellow lines painted has increased two to three hundred fold.
“This is blighting our lives and our quality of life has reduced dramatically.
Every weekday morning from 9am and every afternoon between 2pm and 4pm we can’t get our car out of our drive.
“It is destroying grass verges which we try our best to maintain.
“How many people have objected? There was no mention in the notification on the fact that we had to reply with objections or confirmation; I just assumed that it would be going ahead.
“If we can't have double yellow lines why can't single yellow lines be put there to cover our properties, or make it residents’ parking only.”
Councillor Christina Jebb said that she had visited the residents in Platts Avenue about the proposals and left her card for any who were out at the time.
Mr Sambrook said: “We appreciate what you are saying and tried to address it. We have figures for how many people were against the double yellow lines and a high majority didn’t want them. Everyone was notified about it. We're doing what we possibly can but at the moment we've got to see what more we can do.”
