Rural Norfolk school asks villagers to park more considerately

Children from Surlingham school with PC Gary Hoadley and head teacher Marion Murphy. Photo: Bill Smith (Image: Archant © 2013)

Pupils, teachers, police and a local bus driver are all calling for more road awareness around Surlingham Community Primary School, near Rockland St Mary.

Road past the school at Surlingham. Photo: Bill Smith (Image: Archant © 2013)

The parking problems have been flagged up by John Ledgard, 59, who is the regular driver of the Anglian Bus 001 service between Loddon and Norwich.

Mr Ledgard has to travel along the same road as the school, Walnut Hill, but when he turns into Pond Lane often ends up having to reverse to manoeuvre his bus around the junction.

After some recent 'near misses' he said: 'If we can work together to resolve this then we'll all be one big, happy family.

'I just want people to park in such a way that they realise it is not just me that can't get through – it could be emergency vehicles.

'There's some really nice people in Surlingham and I wouldn't want anybody to get hurt in an accident because I can't see round the corner.'

PC Gary Hoadley, from Poringland police station, has visited the school, which has 92 pupils, at peak morning and afternoon times to try to address the situation previously.

During national Road Awareness Week in November he talked to pupils about road safety and a competition was held to design a poster to ask drivers to slow down near the school.

PC Hoadley said: 'We're trying to do as much as we can to help because we don't want to have to go to the lengths of introducing double yellow lines.'

Headteacher Marion Murphy said parking on some days could be 'a bit tricky' and encouraged parents to park further up nearby roads and walk their children to the school if possible.

She added: 'We just want to raise awareness and make sure to continue to keep safety at the forefront of drivers' minds.'