Cars will be prevented from driving on to pavements after a child was nearly hit by a vehicle

Dangerous parking on pavements outside Cranbrook Education Campus and a near-accident involving a child have prompted new safety measures.

Stone boulders are being put in place to stop vehicles driving on to the pavements.

The problems had been caused by parents parking on the pavements when picking up or dropping off their children.

The head teacher had written to parents asking them not to do it, but it was an incident at the end of a school day in mid-September that led to action being taken.

A car reversed off the pavement and narrowly missed a child.

No-one was hurt, but it led to the town council arranging a meeting with representatives of the school, the developers’ consortium, and a senior county highways officer.

It was agreed that the consortium would initially cone off the pavements, and then pay for the stone blocks to be installed in two places.

One is directly outside the driveway leading up to the campus building, the other alongside the entrance to the parking area behind the houses in Tillhouse Road, where cars have been driving up onto the pavement. It will not affect access to the parking area.

The two pedestrian crossings near the campus, both of which have worn-out road markings, will be repainted, and construction workers on the nearby development sites have been asked not to drive their vehicles near the campus at the start and end of the school day.

County Councillor Ray Bloxham said he was pleased to see the safety measures being put in place, but he thought they should not have been necessary.

“I’ve looked at what goes on there, and the people who’re complaining about the problem are the problem themselves,” he said. “They could at least stop 400 yards before they get to the school and let the children out there and walk. I actually saw people pulling up right outside the school, which is right on a road junction, on a bend, and stopping there and dropping their children off. Kids can walk 100 or 200 yards.

“I know people are rushed, they’ve got to get to work and all the rest of it, but if they just gave it a little bit more thought they’d solve their own problems really.”