PARENTS, pupils and staff will protest against the lack of parking restrictions near a prep school, which they say is putting children's safety in danger.

There are currently 'zigzag' markings on the road either side of the entrance to Woodford Green Prep School in Glengall Road but they only warn drivers of the school entrance and parking there does not incur a penalty.

Woodford Green MP Iain Duncan Smith will join the demonstration tomorrow (Friday, May 28), after the school ran out of patience with the council.

Juliet Bray, of The Charter Road, has two children aged 9 and 6 and said they have to dodge traffic every day as she takes them to and from school.

Mrs Bray, 40, said: “At the moment the zigzags are there but they're not mandatory so everyone just ignores them and parks all the way along the road either side of the school.

“It's dangerous because children have to step out from behind parked cars.

“A lot of parents at the school drive so it doesn't really affect them, but I'm fortunate enough to live close enough to walk.

“The other thing is that there are no crossings anywhere near the school, which is probably the only school in the borough where it's like that.

“But the trouble is the cars whizz along there and so we have to stand in the middle of the road and hope we don't get run over. It's just disgraceful really.”

School staff have expressed their frustration at repeated attempts to discuss the situation with the council which, they say, has not responded to their letters.

The school's headmaster Tony Blackhurst said: “Basically we've got fed up with the council and have decided to get our MP involved.

“In February last year the council showed us a map with marking on its suggesting that the zigzags we're going to become mandatory.

“But what appears to have happened is that they held a meeting with local residents and they, no doubt, didn't want them because they wanted to park there.

“In September the bursar James Bishop wrote to the council to express our dismay at the changes of plans. The reply took weeks to arrive, then we wrote another one and we heard nothing for several months.

“The PTA then got involved in March and asked the parents to write in, so the head of the council department got 70-plus letters.

“We're now approaching June and we've still got no mandatory lines. Even if they gave us a rationale for not doing it then we could at least appeal against it. But we've got no-one to talk to, which really incensed us.”

The protest will take place on Friday (May 28) at 2pm.