‘Horrible’ school traffic is blocking residents’ drives
NEW CLASSES AT COLLEGE WITH NO STUDENT PARKING
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE residents say “horrendous” school traffic is causing them problems three or four times a day.
Households neighbouring Bilborough Sixth Form College on College Way and Longfield Avenue, Bilborough, say the roads are regularly blocked by both students and parents.
Residents have had cars park on their drives, block the roads and block their cars on the drives. Some residents have also seen cars stop in the middle of the road and on the roundabout so their children have a shorter walk to the school’s main entrance.
Bilborough College has had planning approval for ten classrooms in a new two-storey teaching block, which they hope will be open for September 2023. However, residents have concerns that more classrooms will lead to more students and more problems.
Service delivery manager Manny Kudhail, 40, said: “It’s going to increase traffic in the area which is going to cause problems. We already have issues here with people just dropping off and waiting.
“Obviously it goes up and down over the day, but in the morning between 8.15 and 8.45 it’s pretty horrendous. We have parents blocking private drives and dropping off on double yellow lines.
“We already get people stopping on the roundabout and just stopping in the middle of the road when people are trying to get out of their houses and go to work. It probably happens about three or four times a day.”
He added: “From a safety point of view it’s really bad.”
Mum, Jo Shannon, 39, said: “My son’s got a couple more years and he hopefully will be going there.
“We do have sometimes a bit of trouble with all the parking but it’s never too much of a problem that I’ve seen. But it’s good for children in the area.”
Fellow mum Grace Barnes, 35, has also experienced issues with the school traffic and said “It’s really really horrible.”
She explained: “It’s just that when they park their cars here there’s too many as we can’t move our cars and people park on our driveway.
“There is also a lot of littering and they throw stuff in our garden and sometimes people leave gum. People come and stay for a long time so it’s impossible for me to move my car. Sometimes they stay for hours.”
Grace has since installed a front door camera and says “it has helped a bit”.
When asked about the school’s plans for a new teaching block, a resident, who did not wish to be named, said: “I think it’s great. I’m pretty sure they are overstretched so having extra space is always good.”
However, she has also experienced problems with students parking and parents dropping off. She said: “It’s massively when they are leaving. It’s parents parking then blocking the drives and things like that which can be annoying. It doesn’t tend to be for very long, but it can be really annoying definitely.”
Finance consultant Saumin Dhaker, 39, was also pleased to hear about the school’s new classrooms, which will allow for more space to teach maths, physics and electronics.
He said: “That’s good, I’m happy.
“The only one nuisance is there’s a lot of cars in the morning. I have to drop my daughter off at school and because of all these cars I can’t get out.
“It’s only the cars parking that’s a problem.
“Right now they drop them off exactly in front of the door, stopping their cars there and it’s blocking the way.
“This is causing problems not just to me but also people leaving.” A resident who did not wish to be named said: “Sometimes there’s loads of cars there, but it’s not a big problem for us.” Principal of Bilborough College David Shaw said: “Bilborough College is always keen to work with our neighbours to support the free flow of traffic around our site. “We actively discourage students from driving to college because there is not, and never has been, any on-site student parking available. “We also make sure students know about local resident-only parking schemes because these schemes effectively mean that no on-street parking is available in the vicinity of the college either. We support our neighbours in the community in calling for the effective enforcement of these zones.
“The college makes sure that it is fully accessible by public transport and our own private hire bus service.
“We run eleven dedicated bus routes, all of which are heavily subsidised by the college.”
The college has worked with local transport providers to bring the L2 Community Transport for Nottingham service on site to improve the public transport access to the city. They have also worked with Nottingham City Transport to promote the use of the 28 and 25 services.
Mr Shaw continued: “We also remind them to always remain respectful of our local community and if we were to receive a report of a student failing to do this, we would investigate.”
We actively discourage students from driving to college
David Shaw, principal