Just to give you all a quick update as the petition currently stands at 320 signatures - keep them coming please.

The school is refusing to take any responsibility for the state of the roads and the chaos it continues to cause every single term day reducing Park View, Park Avenue and other side roads into a clogged up mess. 

We are continuing towards a public meeting however involving the school as they can then directly explain why they think its ok to create such damage to the road and to make local residents life a total misery when all they have to do is open the Parkstone Road gates, allowing students to enter and exit there and to allow buses and heavy vehicles to use that entrance.

I did hear one reason the school didn't want to open the Parkstone Road Gates was that apparently they have the special needs pupils at that end of the school and they don't want them escaping. Those aren't my words but from a school employee. I don't this it's acceptable that the school is treating pupils as if it were a prison. But it does appear to be true as pupils only have a 10 minute slot to leave via the Parkstone Road gates and then they are closed and forced to walk via Park Avenue. Honestly is this how a school should behave in 2026? 

I have spoken to more and more parents who just don't understand this mentality with the Parkstone Road entrance and why they all have to drive round side streets when the MAIN entrance is on Parkstone Road.

As regards to the roads , well Park Avenue and Park View are just crumbling. Park View concrete road sections are sinking/rising by inches in places and there are several areas with "dips" which don't seem normal. Speed is still an issue on Park View in particular . Park Avenue traffic grinds to a halt most days as the double decker buses (on roads not made for the load) struggle to get into and then out of the ridiculously small entrance. The bare concrete roads causing the bungalows to shake as they do so. Everybody in Park Avenue suffers from the residents to the shopkeepers with a school that just does not care.

Finally with Park View we still have an issue where ESCC say Southern Water have a bad leak under the road (but won't say where) and Southern Water deny it. This is an ongoing issue and we are still trying to get answers as ESCC won't fix faults until Southern water do their repairs.

I am liaising with councillor Andy Batsford about what's going to happen next and, in theory, Helena Dollimore is also still involved in this. In the meantime though we are working towards this meeting when I hope as many of you as possible will come along to vent your own feelings and experiences.