PARENTS are due to be banned from dropping off and picking up their children at a service road near a school.

The move has been prompted by the danger created by cars using the road queuing back into the adjacent junction.

The ban would prevent drivers using the part of the service road near the junction of Sandbach Road and Box Lane, Congleton.

Heathfield and Dane Valley are being extended to take Westlands pupils, and the queuing problem is one of the issues looked at in relation to the extra traffic due to use Heathfield.

Borough support services director Don Lowe said 23 per cent of Heathfield pupils travelled to school by car.

Parents preferred to stop either in Box Lane or on the service road parallel to Sandbach Road to drop off their children, he said.

"Cars turning into Box Lane from Sandbach Road and then turning immediately right into the service road hinder the operation of the Box Lane junction," he said.

"Often there isn't a gap to allow these cars to perform the right turn because of the opposing flow on Box Lane.

"This results in right-turning cars queuing back into the junction."

He added that because pupils were dropped off east of Box Lane many children crossed Box Lane to Heathfield between stationery cars.

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