A school has given its neighbours the cold shoulder in a row over parking.
Which is rather ironic given the sign outside Fixby Junior & Infants School reads: “Achieving together”.
School governors have snubbed residents living in Lightridge Road who have been plagued by inconsiderate parking by parents of children at the school.
Several of them regularly have access to their homes blocked by cars parked across their driveways, the road is chaotic for an hour a day and in summer an ambulance was unable to get through to the school promptly to treat an injured child.
Even the headteacher and her staff have been out on patrol speaking to parents about the issue.
Residents have contacted the school’s governors several times, but have now received a letter from the chair, Miriam Lowbridge, in which she says there would be no more direct contact over the issue.
The letter states: “Governors have considered your letters and have taken advice from the Kirklees Legal Services.
“We are of the view that your complaint does not fall under the school complaints procedures as it relates to the actions of parents, rather than the school, its staff and governors, and as such, does not require a response under the school’s Complaints Procedure.
“We do not propose to enter into any further correspondence with you in relation to parking matters.
“Any further concerns, other than those relating to the safety of children, must be directed to the appropriate enforcement authorities and not to the school or governors.”
She added that the governors would be arranging a meeting with the Kirklees parking enforcement team and local police, and that local councillors and/or residents could be invited.
However, she made it plain that the governors had no desire to hear from the residents directly, adding in the letter to their spokesman, Preston Cater: “In the meantime please be aware that neither school staff nor governors will respond to further correspondence from you in relation to parking.”
Mr Cater said the residents were “extremely disappointed” at the response.
“They are saying they don’t care about the residents’ concerns. I think if the chair of governors lived here, she might think differently.
“They are our neighbours., but they are not acting as socially responsible good neighbours, what message does that send out to the pupils? They are not being set a good example.”
He added that the problem had got worse, rather than better, since the start of the new school year.
