CONGESTION at a Dursley school on weekday mornings and afternoons has raised concerns from the surrounding community – with some suggesting it is an “accident waiting to happen”.

Extreme busyness and inappropriate parking during drop-off and collection times at Rednock School in Dursley have led some residents to call for a police presence during busy periods.

Many people living in the town have warned that if some form of action is not taken soon a young person may end up being injured or killed on the road.

Nic Stevens, formerly of Dursley but now living in Berkeley, had two of her sons attend the school in the past. Now she is occasionally tasked with dropping off or collecting a friend’s child.

“I can appreciate that it’s a secondary school and many people have to drive, but the situation is now ridiculous and I’m really hoping something can be done about it,” she said.

“It just takes one driver to be distracted and one child to be knocked over before all hell breaks loose.

“It’s just an accident waiting to happen, and it really annoys me when there are two lay-bys they could use, one outside Lidl and one opposite, but instead they insist on clogging up the bus stop and entrance.”

Rednock School is on Kingshill Road, which, as the largest road in and out of Dursley, maintains a substantial amount of traffic throughout the day.

When traffic lights nearby the school site stopped working in August this year, Gloucestershire County Councillor for Dursley Steve Lydon said he was “genuinely fearful somebody might die”.

When the Gazette raised the issue surrounding Rednock School with people on social media, many responded by saying they avoided the road around the times of 8.30am and 3pm due to what they perceive as a dangerous heightened degree of traffic.

Katy Louise Greenhill said: “I try to avoid Rednock at these times. The amount of times I’ve almost hit a kid because they’ve decided to just run across is unreal.”

Others added that people living on the Kingshill Road were also badly affected during the drop-off and collection times, with parents parking illegally across their drives.

A spokesman for Gloucestershire police said: "The safety of children and young people is paramount and we would encourage motorists to park responsibly around our schools at busy times of the day. However we have not received a significant number of complaints about parking at this location.

"Gloucestershire police alongside the Gloucestershire Road Safety Partnership and the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner runs the 'thank you for keeping me safe' campaign across the county encouraging parents to park responsibly around schools through education of their children. This campaign has been fantastic success following its launch in Stroud in 2012.

"Although we have received a small number of complaints of poor driving at this location we take reports of this nature seriously and PCSOs continue to carry out patrols in the area as a preventative measure."

Despite several attempts, Rednock School did not respond to requests for a comment.