A WARM welcome back to the new school term met the parents of St Mark's Junior School children who received a letter just days before the start of the new term advising that access to the school would no longer be possible through the back gate to the Somerset Road Education Trust site.

That same day, said gate was found to be chained up with fencing erected behind. This will mean pupils from the Pauls Dene area having a much longer and, during the darker winter days, unlit walk to/from school which will only discourage walking to school.

Additionally pupils dropped at the bottom of the “118 steps” off Balmoral Road will now unlikely be allowed to walk the extra distance to school, thus stifling the precious independence of older children. The consequence of both will be to create further traffic issues in the already dangerously busy area of Somerset Road due to more parents driving; an accident waiting to happen.

There has been a lack of timely and open communication from the school (Wyndham Park parents received the same letter on the last day of the summer term), a lack of consultation with the parents and a lack of transparency in decision making as to what has driven this action. How is this an example to our children and, in an age of ever increasing inactivity in children, how does this encourage them to be more active?

Helen and Bruce Springett

Salisbury