A RESIDENT has criticised an idea to introduce parking permits in roads surrounding Prince Henry's High School.

Julian Crompton, of Balmoral Close said that it "would not solve anything" after Cllr Mark Goodge posed the question to Evesham residents in the Facebook group Evesham Questions.

Cllr Goodge asked if local residents would be in favour of introducing parking permits in Victoria Avenue, Cambria Road, Windsor Road, Princess Road and Balmoral Close due to the backlog of traffic.

Mr Crompton said: "I have lived here since the mid 1970s and I have seen the traffic levels develop, as there are more cars per house and more teachers and students parking there.

"I don't think parking permits would solve anything.

"It would cost £40 to get one and it is still not guaranteed you would be able to park outside your house.

"It strikes me as something which will just help fund the council."

Despite arguing that permits are not the answer, Mr Crompton believes that work needs to be down to reduce the traffic in the area.

He said: "I think they need to restructure the traffic a bit and make some of it a one way system. That would stop the bottlenecks.

"I would make the top end of Windsor Road and Balmoral Close a one way system allowing traffic to move freely around that part of the area and safely.

"At the moment it is a problem and it is a bit of a rat-run.

"I don't think teachers and students parking is the biggest issue.

"I think the biggest problem for the area is coaches trying to turn into Victoria Avenue, which is too narrow for them, so they have to go over both sides of the road.

"This causes a build-up of traffic.

"There is a perfectly good bus stop at Greenhill just down the road, which the school coaches could use to drop off school children who could walk down to the school."

Suzanne Thomas, assistant headteacher at Prince Henry's High School who has responsibility for school transport said: "Prince Henry’s has occupied its current site for over one hundred years.

"For many years the local authority has had a statutory duty to transport pupils safely to and from the school.

"If the coaches parked at a site on Greenhill, the congestion would be far worse in that area.

"Consequently, the school would not be able to manage the students off site and therefore we would not be able to ensure that they were being kept safe.

"Until the council are able to support the school with a viable alternative access point, buses and cars will have to travel to and from the school down Victoria Avenue as they have done for many years”.

A notice on the school's website adds: "There is restricted access to the school and at peak times there are at least 15 school buses dropping children off in the morning and picking them up again in the evening.

"Parents using any part of Victoria Avenue or the other nearby side roads to drop children off in the morning and to pick them up in the evening cause serious problems for the bus drivers and for the school.

"On occasions the congestion caused by parents parking in the street or the school car park poses a major problem with traffic jammed and unable to move all the way back to the main road.

"Dropping children off before 8.50 am and picking them up after 4pm is not a problem, but otherwise would parents please arrange an alternative pick up/drop off point well away from Victoria Avenue and the surrounding streets.

"Even parking at the end of Victoria Avenue causes the bus drivers problems as they have found difficulty turning into/out of the road with so many cars parked there.

"Sometimes the buses arrive late at school solely because of the difficulty in negotiating their way through parents’ cars."

Around 150 have voted on Cllr Goodge's poll, although only 22 identified themselves as from the local area.

Of these, 15 people opposed the idea of parking permits and seven people agreed with it.

Cllr Goodge said: "I don't have an opinion either way on the issue, I think it should be for the residents to decide what happens.

"I asked the question just because I wanted to see what people thought about it."