Published: Wednesday, 19th September, 2007 12:30
School lines misery
By David Knox
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A LINE painting hit squad has caused chaos in Galashiels after blitzing a school drop-off area with new regulations.
And many parents with children at St Margaret’s are claiming the council’s roads team has acted illegally.
Dozens of mums and dads use Livingstone place every morning and afternoon to drop off and pick up their kids.
But zigzags and buses-only markings suddenly appeared the length of the street on Monday morning.
And within hours of the paint drying the backlash began.
One furious mum told the Border Telegraph: “Cars were driving round everywhere trying to find a place to stop legally. This is absolute stupidity.
“Because St Margaret’s is a catholic school the pupils come from all over Galashiels and further away – we have no choice but to bring our children to school by car.
“The council would have known we didn’t want this so they sneakily painted the lines when nobody was looking.”
The narrow road which leads to St Margaret’s and the town’s swimming pool is also used as a drop off area for Galashiels Academy buses.
Calls have been made for some time to ease the gridlock which occurs most mornings.
And to end the accident-waiting-to-happen assault course many pupils face to reach the school gates.
But the primary parents are furious that there was no consultation on the new measures.
Another told us: “Discussions with parents would have produced alternative solutions.
“It’s now almost impossible to find a parking space within a couple of minutes walk of the school.
“Gala Academy has three entrances – I don’t see why they have to use our entrance in the first place.
“To paint lines on the road you should need a Traffic Regulation Order.
The council don’t have one and I doubt they would have been given one if they’d followed the proper procedures.”
The Border Telegraph has also learned that the primary school’s PTA weren’t informed of the planned parking restrictions.
And the school itself only found out on Friday morning.
A spokesman for Scottish Borders Council said: “We’ve had problems at Livingstone Place with really quite worrying congestion and conflict due to the combination of school buses and parents parking.
“We were concerned the gridlock at the end of the school day could cause further problems should any emergency vehicles require access to the swimming pool.
“It just so happened our line marking squad was in the Galashiels area at the weekend, so we took the decision to get the markings done straight away.
“It all happened a bit fast, but we asked both schools to inform parents that we would be marking bus bays and zigzag lines over the weekend and parents would be required to park elsewhere.
“In reality we are only asking parents to walk approximately 100 metres with their children – there are plenty of other parking opportunities in the area.”
St Margaret’s RC School’s PTA are meeting tomorrow night.
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