ANGRY residents staged a protest to stop parents reducing their streets to gridlock during the school run.

Residents of Queen Anne's Road and North Parade, Bootham, York, claim about 100 cars travel down the narrow streets each morning to drop their children off at St Olave's, the junior school for nearby St Peter's. The congestion caused by the cars, which they say are mainly large 4x4s, is then repeated in the afternoon.

To combat the problem, residents took to the streets today, stopping parents in their cars to explain the problem.

Protestor Janine Dunford said: "It is an accident waiting to happen. We all have families and we are very worried."

Protest organiser Ian Robertson said the cars created congestion, noise and pollution and many residents' cars had been damaged.

He said the problem had been going on ever since St Peter's bought the former Queen Anne's school site for St Olave's.

"It is difficult for residents to get out of the street in the morning to go to work. We are trying to get the point across that maybe they should park their cars at St Peter's and walk their children to the junior school," he said.

One parent, who dropped his child off at the school today, said: "I think they are probably entirely right. There is going to be an accident on the street."

Andrew Trotman, head teacher of St Peter's, said: "We have limited access on to our own site, which means we cannot accommodate all the cars coming here to park so the parents can walk down with their children."

Updated: 10:48 Tuesday, September 09, 2003