'CHAOS' during the school run has pushed a Newport councillor to launch an online petition, demanding the Isle of Wight Council takes action against the town's parking nightmare. 


Cllr Chris Whitehouse, Conservative councillor for Newport West Ward, said work on Christ the King College had resulted in the loss of 60 parking spaces, forcing staff and students to park on nearby roads. 

He has urged the leader of the Isle of Wight Council, Jonathan Bacon, to deploy more parking enforcement officers during the school run, provide better off-street parking for teachers and sixth form students, and hold an urgent consultation on introducing parking zones for residents only. 

Cllr Whitehouse would also like to see Taylor Road be opened up to buses only, in one direction, to avoid school buses traveling up and down Wellington Road. 

"With six local schools, it has always been chaos during school run time in our area around Wellington Road, Hinton Road, Fieldfare Road and Mountbatten Drive, but things have suddenly got much worse," Cllr Whitehouse said. 

"During the construction work on Christ the King College's new building, 60 parking spaces have been lost.

"There simply aren’t spaces for those 60 teachers and sixth formers to park on local roads.

"I personally warned the leader of the council about this chaos many months ago before the construction work began, as did the principal of Christ the King College, Mrs Pat Goodhead.

"As local residents can now attest, the measures taken by Cllr Bacon have simply proved inadequate.

"If he doesn’t act soon, Cllr Bacon may have to take responsibility for accidents in which there are serious injuries and possibly deaths, not least because buses are having to mount pavements to get around cars that are so densely parked they create obstructions."

The petition can be viewed here.