A BOWLS club is working with police to help tackle school run parking chaos on an Oxford estate.

Problem parking on Sandy Lane West in Littlemore, caused by mums and dads dropping their children off at the St John Fisher School, has angered residents.

Now the neighbourhood police team has suggested a possible solution to the problem by using spaces at Oxford and District Indoor Bowls Club.

Pc Ashley Gardner said: “We are in talks with the bowling club, with the school and the road safety officer.

“Over the last 12 months we have worked closely with those groups and we’ve battled to improve parking in Sandy Lane West.”

The proposed scheme would see parents allowed to use 20 parking spaces in the bowling club car park, which is 200 yards from the school, reducing the number of vehicles parked in nearby residential roads.

Pc Gardner added: “We’ve also been doing random and sporadic speed operations and whenever we do one we seem to have a reduction in speeding.”

Littlemore Parish Council member Dorian Hancock welcomed the idea.

He told the Oxford Mail: “It’s give and take, if the parents of the children are agreeable we’ll have to see how it goes.

“It could resolve the matter. It’s the parking up and waiting rather than the dropping off that’s the issue.

“If the community pulls together it will resolve the matter. The bowling club are to be commended.”

He added: “It is very difficult because so many people have cars these days who use them for the school run. And when you are talking about a primary school that’s understandable, but at the same time it is an issue which I think can become a problem.”

Pc Gardner added: “We’re responding to the concerns of the residents in Sandy Lane West. The parents do cause problems by parking in the little cul-de-sacs and if the trial at the bowling club is successful we hope that the bowling club will grant us permission to continue.”

He added that work with the school, involving pupils taking part in speeding operations, had a real impact on drivers in the area and made motorists more considerate.

“They come out on operations with us, wearing the yellow jackets and that does have an impact,” he said.

The bowls club and the school were unavailable for comment.