Church leaders claim their volunteers have been "abused" for trying to stop people parking in their car park during the school run.
St Augustine’s Church in Whitchurch say the issue of parents picking up their children from Bridge Farm Primary School is getting so bad that disabled people have had to miss attending church because they can’t park in the church’s own car park. School leaders have repeated appeals to parents to stop parking there both in the morning and for afternoon pick-up.
The church and Bridge Farm Primary are on opposite sides of East Dundry Road in Whitchurch, and the issue has bubbled away in South Bristol for a number of years, but came to a head with a post on St Augustine’s Church’s Facebook page. Sharing a picture of its car park filled with cars, the church said the problem was affecting every part of its daily activities.
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“Every day our car park fills up with people not going to the church, most of them are in the school,” the statement from the church said.
“We’ve tried really hard to be nice about this. We’ve asked nicely, we put up signs, but we just get ignored. In fact on more than one occasion volunteers have received abuse from people when they’ve asked them not to park. This building is in use every day,” they added.
Outlining a typical day at the church, the church leaders said the building is in use for most of the time, and therefore the car park is needed. “Let’s take today (Wednesday) as an example,” they said.
“In the morning we have a service. We then have a bereavement group for people who’ve lost a loved one, then we have community cafe, finally we have Rainbows and Brownies. Every single group using the church has complained about parking issues. We’ve had disabled people drive away because they can’t park. Please, if you’re going to the school, don’t park here,” they added.
In response, the school again urged parents arriving for drop off or pick up not to park in the church car park. In a message to parents, the school said: “We politely ask that our school community shows consideration and kindness to the members of St Augustine's Church, and we ask you to please refrain from parking in the church car park. Thank you for your co-operation in this matter.”
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