ANXIOUS parents and teachers say children are in danger whenever they step foot out of the main entrance of Christ Church primary school.

And now they want traffic bosses to rethink their plans about parking restrictions - because they want more yellow lines painted on Bent Lane, Colne.

The campaign is being led by headteacher Tony Stevenson.

He discovered Pendle Council's plan to introduce parking restrictions in nearby Keighley Road when he happened to see a public notice in a newspaper.

Mr Stevenson says no one at the school was asked what they thought of the idea, and that parents and teachers would have suggested extending the restrictions up Bent Lane to the school gate.

He said: "We want them to review the situation. There has always been a problem and we are asking for a single yellow line to be put down to prevent traffic from parking outside the school.

"Our main concern is the safety of the children. We are very careful and make sure they are well supervised but the fact remains that the pavement outside the main school gate is nothing more than a piece of concrete jutting into the road.

"We believe we should have been consulted about what was planned so that we could have put forward our views.

"We are not displeased with the idea of restrictions on Keighley Road. Many of our parents already use the public car park at the Hide and we have a lollipop lady on Keighley Road to ensure the children can cross the road in safety."

Mr Stevenson enlisted the help of Pendle MP Gordon Prentice and local councillor Jo Belbin, and Pendle councillors have now promised to look at the school's problem.

Pendle Council's assistant principal engineer Peter Atkinson said: "We are not going ahead with the lines on Keighley Road at the moment. It is all back in the melting pot because we want to listen to what the school has to say.

"The County highways and the Police have to be consulted before we can make any decisions about putting lines down and we are consulting them to see what they say about Bent Lane.

"All the paperwork should be sorted out in time for it to be discussed at the Colne and District meeting in February, and anyone who wants to speak at the meeting can stand up and have their say. All they have to do is to let the town hall know beforehand."

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