Exclusive estate bars access to RC school

The directors of the Abelea Green management company have forced St Joseph's RC church in Epsom to bar the gate between their car park and St Joseph's primary school, to prevent St Margaret Drive on the Abelea Green estate being used to access the school via the car-park.

After spending years trying, the directors who live on the estate eventually succeeded by pointing out that the lease for the car park access road mentions the church and the hall, but not the school.

Parents of children at St Joseph's have reported chronic delays to Rosebank traffic at the West Street traffic lights. Rosebery school and local residents have expressed concerns about congestion in White Horse Drive.

Epsom & Ewell borough councillors point out that schools and traffic are both matters for Surrey County Council. The county council.say this is a purely legal matter. They propose to discuss the resulting traffic delays and congestion at a meeting in March 2019.

Epsom has two county councillors, both Conservatives. One of them lives in a road on the Abelea Green estate.

Perhaps this is a case for Liberal Democrat pavement politics.