Neighbours who have complained about ‘dangerous and disorderly’ parking in their area of Reading have been given a potential solution to the problem.
The area is home to thousands of neighbours with three schools being located on the roads off Southcote Lane.
These are Southcote Primary School in Silchester Road, Blessed Hugh Faringdon Catholic Secondary School in Fawley Road and The Wren secondary, which has a rear access from Presentation Way.
Residents complained that school parents are parking in a ‘dangerous, disruptive and disorderly’ manner, including blocking residents’ driveways.
Neighbours in Southcote called for Silchester Road to be closed for residents only from 7.30am to 8.45am and 2.15pm to 3.30pm on weekdays, install marked parking bays in Southcote Lane, and introduce permit parking Fawley Road, Aldworth Close, Southcote Farm Lane, and Shepley Drive.
These suggestions were submitted in a petition to Reading Borough Council’s highways department.
Following an assessment, Jim Chen, an assistant engineer of network services in the council’s highways department suggested that Southcote Primary
and Hugh Faringdon schools should set up a ‘school street’ scheme.
These schemes involve volunteers closing roads at school drop-off and pick-up times to encourage walking and cycling to school and reduce traffic.
In this case, the school street would involve closing parts of Silchester Road and Fawley Road.
Changes to parking rules were discussed at a recent council meeting.
John Ennis (Labour, Southcote), lead councillor for transport said: “The School Street is the most important element of this.
“It’s my ward and I’ve been involved with this for the best part of 20 years, to be honest with you, with limited success.
“We’ve tried everything almost, I think the School Street is the best [solution].
“I think the major issue is around school traffic, because there’s three schools there: Southcote, The Wren and Blessed Hugh Faringdon.
“Hugh Faringdon is back in Fawley Road where we do not encourage traffic to go into that area, and they haven’t, they don’t.”
However, councillors fell short of accepting all of the petition’s demands, with suggestions about marked bays and permit parking being rebuffed.
Cllr Ennis said: “I think some elements of it [the petition] is contradicting itself and that’s why I don’t think we can take this forward.”
While he accepted inconsiderate parking resulted in ‘annoyance’ to several residents, he argued Southcote Lane is the safest place to park for school traffic.
Ultimately, the council’s traffic management sub-committee unanimously agreed to encourage the schools to collaborate to create a school street proposal and reject the other suggestions.
The decision was made at the meeting on March 6.
