Traffic calming

Traffic havoc which has caused major congestion in parts of Dereham for years is to be tackled with yellow lines, it has been revealed.

Roads in Toftwood, mainly School Lane and Westfield Road, have become no go areas for years during school pick up and drop off times because of the amount of cars dropping off hundreds

of children to the infant, junior and special school as well as a recently opened nursery.

Now Norfolk County Council has proposed putting sections of yellow lines along one side of both School Lane and Westfield Road, with a single yellow line down the other side, stopping parking along that side only at school pick up and drop off times

but allowing it the rest of the day.

This would allow cars to pass each other at peak times, the council said, but added the scheme was preliminary and could change.

Tim Birt, councillor

for Toftwood on the town council, said: "It has been a long time coming. It may help in terms of traffic flow but will mean a few less parking spaces."

He added residents should have been consulted and asked what they thought before the scheme was put together.

June Barnes, chairman of the governors at Toftwood Infant School, said the traffic problems in the area had not been helped by the new nursery, adding another 50 odd cars to the school run each morning. But she said there had been a problem for years they had been trying to get sorted. "If I come back from Norwich and know it is school turning out time.

"Although it is the quickest way home, I avoid it like the plague," she said.

The county council is in consultation over the scheme with people like the

town council and schools before revealing their final scheme.