School traffic chaos on the cards?

Our main towns could soon be seeing twice-daily major traffic snarl-ups if the proposal is approved.

As reported, a petition has been started to oppose a South Lanarkshire Council cost-saving proposal to extend the distance pupils have to live from secondary schools before qualifying for free transport from two miles to three.

With the end of a consultation period over the proposal looming on May 13, the Kirkfieldbank mum leading the petition campaign, Julia Marrs, launched a twin-pronged attack, claiming the changes were potentially dangerous for village kids having to walk long distances on rural roads to schools AND would cause urban traffic chaos in our main towns of Carluke, Lanark, Lesmahagow and Biggar as many parents resorted to the `school run’ by car to get their youngsters safely to and from school.

Said Julia: “I am having trouble obtaining detailed statistics on accidents and crimes committed on the route between Kirkfieldbank and Lanark Grammar, particularly on the Brae.

“You’d have thought these details would be made known to parents during the consultation period and, if these figures have not been compiled, then why not?”

She added that, whatever the accident and crime figures were for Kirkfieldbank Brae, winter weather alone “turns it into a ski-slope”.

She added that town centre dwellers and workers might soon rue the day the cuts came in. She pointed out that, for example, the new Lanark Grammar is served by the narrow, residential Kirklands Road.

“Think of all the traffic that uses it now - the staff and senior pupils’ cars and all the service vehicles calling at a school every day - and add all the parents’ cars now using it for a school run. It will mean chaos twice a day.”