THE growing danger from traffic to children at Lewtrenchard Primary School is to be discussed by the school governors and Lewdown Parish Council.

The risk is said to come from visibility being blocked by cars parked along the main road by the school, and each side of a road junction, when parents deliver children in the morning and collect them in the afternoon.

Last week there was a collision between two cars around 8.30am when the line of sight was obscured by a bus halted at the bus-stop, a lorry waiting behind it and a number of parked cars.

The two cars were damaged but no-one was hurt.

Headteacher Keith Urro said: 'This shows that we could have an accident which might be much worse.'

Before that, there were several occasions when an accident was narrowly avoided. The school and police have warned parents to be more careful where they park.

Mr Urro said the problem had become steadily more serious because the school population had doubled in the 14 years he had been there, from 39 to around 80 next year. But parking space had stayed the same he said.

'It is a popular school, serving five parishes, and there has been a lot of building around here, especially in Lewdown and more is planned, so the school is bound to grow.'

He thought the solution might be to build a tarmac roadway to a new car park within the school grounds.

But this would be beyond the means of the school or the parish and would need money from Devon County Council or the Ministry of Transport he said.

'It would be expensive but what price can you put on people's lives? I hope they can put pressure on the county to look at it more seriously.'

Alwyn Spry, clerk of the parish council, said she had just written to the school governors asking for a meeting to discuss the matter.