A CONSULTATION into the enlargement of Butts Primary School to cater for planned housing development to the south of Alton has raised concerns about road safety.

Hampshire County Council is proposing to increase the physical capacity to allow them to offer 60 additional places for reception year children, which will allow the school to cater for 420 pupils.

The demand for school places is said to be as a result of a rise in the number of births in the area and new housing development. It is intended that permanent facilities will be available from September 2018.

Where a local authority proposes to permanently enlarge a school’s capacity by 25 per cent or more it must follow a procedure set out by the Department for Education.

As such, residents were invited along to the school for a drop-in session last week to give their views on the principle of enlarging the school.

A consultation will run until March 4 and if approval is given a statutory public notice will be published, probably in April.

After the date of publication there will be a four-week period in which any representations can be made to the local authority, after which the county council will decide whether or not to proceed with the proposal, with a decision expected by the end of the summer.

The current proposed building plans are being developed with the headteacher and governing body. The plans will be posted on the school website once they have been developed and agreed with the school. There will be a further opportunity to discuss the plans in detail at a pre-planning application consultation.

In the meantime, people have already expressed concerns over the impact of more vehicles using Bolle Road and Downs Way in particular to access the school.

Mark Turner lives in Bolle Road and says he knows the school very well from his daughter’s time there. While fully aware of plans to build hundreds of new homes in the area, and the obvious demands that this will place on the county council to provide enough school places, he is “exceptionally concerned” about road safety.

And knows other residents feel the same.

In a letter to Hampshire County Council, he wrote: “With current pupil levels, the roads around the school, and in particular Bolle Road and Downs Way, are a dangerous place to be walking or driving around 3.20pm every school day. Double parking, parking on zig zags, and parking on the corners of junctions are a particular concern of mine. I regularly have to drive back home around the close of the school day and frankly, as things stand today, even driving slowly has risks.”

While he has brought the matter to the attention of the police and the county council, he says nothing, as yet, has been done about it.

And while there is talk of a school travel plan, he is not sure this will stop some parents from disregarding the safety of other parents, children and road users.

He has suggested that someone from the county council’s children’s services department should walk the area from 3.10pm to 3.30pm on a school day to see for themselves what it is like.

And he added: “I am aware there are going to be painted ‘no parking’ and ‘no wait zones’ but frankly, unless they are going to be policed, why bother?”

Mr Turner’s fear is that by 2018 an already bad situation will become even worse. He said: “More cars and more stupid parking putting everyone in the vicinity, including young children, in danger is unacceptable!”

He further points out that the staff car park at Butts School is not large enough to cope with the number of cars requiring to park there currently, so many people leave their cars in the roads around the school.

And he is assuming that the new plans will include a new car park to cope with more staff and visitor parking.

In asking the county council to look seriously at addressing these concerns, Mr Turner concluded: “I have no direct objection to increasing the size of Butts School, but I do have a massive objection to how the children will arrive and depart from school safely and how the lives of residents close to the school will not be blighted by the dangers of incredibly stupid parking by parents dropping off or collecting their children.

“The school is located along a quiet residential street, doubling the size will only amplify the issues residents already have to endure.”

Comments on the proposed expansion of Butts School can be made in writing to Martin Shefferd, Strategic Development Officer, Children’s Services Department, EII Court North, Winchester, Hampshire SO23 8UG or by e-mail to [email protected] by Friday, March 4.