CONCERNED parents have warned that the traffic crisis outside a primary school is an 'accident waiting to happen'.

Drivers have been seen mounting the footpath behind families with young school children to snake around cars parked on Crescent Road and Hamilton Road.

Just last week, parents claim one woman was struck by a car while she was pushing a buggy while William Neale said he was spat at and verbally abused when he challenged a motorist for mounting a kerb.

Parents at Alfred Sutton School held an action group meeting and called for Reading Borough Council (RBC) to solve the congestion problems.

Mr Neale said: "A parent was walking along near St Joseph's School last Friday and pushing her buggy. There was a motorist trying to get on the kerb and she bumped the woman with the car.

"She used her car as a weapon to nudge her out the way.

"We're fed up with not being able to walk to school safely.

"I was with my girls one evening when a car clipped the school bags and me.

"A while later I challenged someone and told them they couldn't mount the kerb. He gave me such a volley of abuse and then spat at me in the face."

The meeting heard how parents park their cars on verges to let children out, stopping other motorists from passing.

The group plans to put parents outside the school in high-vis jackets to deter motorists from mounting the kerb.

Mr Neale, of Hamilton Road, added: "We had a lady who was hit by another parent who was in a hurry. The only reason she wasn't badly injured is because somebody called out at the last minute. She had a three-year-old with her.

"You have the parents who are late and in a rush and then the knock-on impact of the Redlands Parking Scheme and the traffic stuff that RBC have pushed into a bottleneck.

"Then you have the irate commuters who use it as a rat-run.

"When the parents and the commuters meet it is just absolute chaos.

"It's an accident waiting to happen.

"The council has implemented a scheme that has not been thought through. We have a busy rat-run and they have allowed three schools to be built in the same road.

"Once Maiden Erlegh Reading is filled there will be close to 4,000 pupils (in the same area). It's just going to get worse."

Cllr Tony Page, RBC's lead member for transport, said parents need to take responsibility when parking to ensure children are not endangered.

He added: "There has been a problem in that area long before any residents' parking scheme was introduced.

"Lots of that relates to the responsibility of the parents dropping off and picking up children.

"The school has to play a part in looking to put pressure on parents, some of whom seem to be endangering their own children, let alone others."

RBC plans to send out a consultation letter to residents in January proposing an area-wide parking scheme to deter motorists from parking on verges.