PARENTS’ appeals for action to improve road safety outside Garsington Primary School have borne fruit.

One mother described crossing the road at present as a “gamble”, while others said they feared someone would be hurt or killed at the start and end of the school day.

Many of the problems are caused by parents who park in Wheatley Road outside the school as they drop off and pick up their children, blocking driveways, reducing visibility and making it difficult for traffic to get past.

After appealing to Oxfordshire County Council for help, the council has agreed to paint additional Keep Clear markings on the road outside the school’s entrance and to mark out solid white lines preventing overtaking to deter parking.

The work will cost £300 and is likely to take place later this year The council has also pledged to pay for a lollipop patrol to help pupils to cross the road safely.

In addition, parents, governors and David Turner, the village’s county councillor, have put together a package of plans to tackle the problems, including improving access to the rear of the school, expanding the Walking Bus scheme to discourage use of cars and improving paths in the village to encourage more children to walk to school.

Three nearby pubs have agreed to allow parents to use their car parks to park to drop off and collect children.

School governor Janet Bolam said: “There’s hardly any parking – it’s just mayhem.

“The local community is fed up with it as well, twice a day, five days a week when they can’t get out of their drives. It’s a real problem for them.

“It has been a slow-growing problem – it was an issue when my husband was a governor when our children were at school and that was 20 years ago.

“It’s growing because of the increasing traffic going through, the school’s catchment area has increased and there are more parents bringing their children in cars.”

Mother-of-two Catherine Turner, 38, of Birch Road, said her youngest son Charlie, four, was nearly hit by a car in September last year and described crossing the road as a “gamble”.

She said: “We just need parents to really stop and think about how they can make changes to their dropping-off and picking-up routines. We all need to work together, before something terrible does happen.”

Mr Turner said: “I’m not confident these measures will completely solve the problem but it will certainly make it easier.”