FREE car park passes will be given to parents during the school rush hour in a bid to stamp out dangerous parking in Englefield Green, Near Ascot.
The passes will be for council-run pay-and-display car parks for parents of pupils at St Jude’s and St Cuthbert’s schools, both in Bagshot Road.
Runnymede Council’s economic development committee gave the scheme the go-ahead on Thursday last week.
School dropping-off and collection times are causing problems across the borough with accusations that mums are parking inconsiderately or dangerously, reducing traffic to single file causing tailbacks, and blocking site lines.
Residents in Virginia Water, for example, suffer because of the three schools in the village, and Magna Carta School in Egham Hythe.
The committee intends to roll out the scheme across the borough, so thousands of car park spaces could be lost to parents each weekday morning and afternoon.
Jen Kensey, co-owner of Honeychurch Deli in St Jude’s Road, Englefield Green said she wasn’t worried that giving parents passes for the car park would hit trade.
“They park there now, so the plans should not make a difference to trade.” She went on to say that her mother lives in nearby Larksfield, where parents dropping off their children do cause problems. Cars are often parked in corners so you can’t see vehicles coming from the other end.”
An informal arrangement of the car park scheme has been in place to help parents with children at St Jude’s School and St Cuthbert’s School, both in Bagshot Road, which have limited parking spaces.
A similar project was launched in Chertsey, where parents of children at St Anne’s School use the council’s library car park free of charge between 8.30am and 9.15am and 2.55pm and 3.40pm. The council claims this has led to a ‘significant’ reduction in traffic parking in narrow Free Prae Road at those times.
Committee chairman, Cllr Pat Roberts, described the move as ‘responsible activity’ and said St Jude’s Road car park was not regularly used anyway.
He added: “As there is an infant and junior school down there it’s under-standable parents will want to get close. This is really to legalise what has been unofficial for some time.”
The parent of one St Jude’s pupil, who did not wish to be named, felt it would encourage laziness. He said: “Too many parents drive unnecessarily, and they want to park two metres from the school gates. They end up taking up spaces which could be used by those who live out of the village and actually need to drive.”
Council enforcement officers will patrol the car parks to ensure that no parent over-stays without paying.