The Kirkby Times has mentioned the problem of parking outside the old Sacred Heart School, now Simonswood, and today on the 11 Sept 2003, the problem has grown noticeably worse since this website last reported on it.

Below - An accident waiting to happen. Westhead Avenue outside Simonswood School, the cars wait to pick up kids. It was only when I looked at the photos displayed in full size that I noticed that kids were running out between cars, and parents are just crossing the road with their kids by slipping out between the cars parked and NOT using the Lollipop Woman or man on Duty.

You can download or open up a full-sized version of the photo. The photo shows a child running across the road between the parked cars there. The child cannot be recognised so no alterations have been made to the photo.

Download Photo Here

Gridlock Kirkby -

Kirkby was never designed for a community which owned a lot of cars. It was not the task of the Middle Class town planners to actually plan too cleverly for the future of Working Class people, Kirkby is an example of this with a road system which is becoming more dangerous with the massive increase in volume of traffic we have. Along with the wholesale sell off of playing areas and any spare patches of green, it can only get worse. Some effort has been made to stop parking problems in residential roads - but the Council plundered SRB money to do this, and also wasted untold millions with the road humps and CCTV which we see in Northwood.

Why we use cars to drop kids off at School.

Is it really necessary for every parent to drop off their child by car? It seems that some may be simply lazy, although this opinion will not go down too well. Given obesity is rising in Kirkby as it is everywhere else - there must be some lazy parents who ferry their kids round by car when a good 15 minute walk would do them the world of good. It would be interesting to see how many parents NEED to use the car to drop kids off. Years ago most Kirkby mums would walk kids to school, but obviously as more Women work and as Knowsley Council and the Church close Schools down, parents will have a greater distance to travel and need to use cars. There are 3 possible reasons why kids are dropped off at Simonswood School in such great numbers….

1-Parents think it is dangerous to let younger kids walk to school alone or with mates

2- Distances are too great.

3- Laziness*

(* Unpopular to say but we ALL know people who'd sooner drive than walk for 5 minutes. No-one will admit it either! Walking is great exercise and a great way to have a nice chat with your kids or grandkids. Don't shoot the messenger!)

A Common Sense Solution

We must have hundreds of parents who drop kids off, it's likely Knowsley Council have not done a survey, but if they did, they may see perhaps 3 or 400 cars being used to drop kids off, maybe more. Could we not have school buses used to pick these kids up at convenient points? The money could be mugged from the Government as it is an environmentally friendly plan and could well see an increase in attendance from school-kids. Parents would be given a welcome break from the morning dash to school and could simply walk a short distance to the pick up point. It would also create work and spare us this dangerous business of 50 odd cars vying for space on Westhead Avenue and other roads where schools are sited. As Kirkby sees many more houses built and more families living in the various new estates, it may be necessary to introduce public transport to tackle the problem. We should also finish off the Bike Lane to cover Kirkby in it's entirety

I'll E-mail my Local Councillor Mark Hagan to see what the higher up's have to say. I think its Cllr Billy Brennan's patch though.

St Marie's school will also be notified about this news article appearing.

As ever - What do YOU think? It's YOUR view which counts and Kirkby Times offers the ONLY platform in which we can all contribute to the debate on our future here in Kirkby.