A PRIMARY school in York looks set to build a new car park, after its existing one was deemed a potential danger to children.

Planners have recommended giving the go-ahead for a new parking area at Robert Wilkinson Primary School, in Strensall, after fears were raised about the possible risks to pupils and staff posed by the existing layout.

There are no barriers dividing the current car park from a nearby play area for children, and there are also concerns over its lighting arrangements. City of York Council’s east area planning sub-committee will make its decision on the car park next week. In a statement to the authority, agents acting for the school said the car park at the back of the site, which is used at the moment, has only “partial protection” and problems with its surface during bad weather mean staff sometimes have to park on the road outside, causing congestion.

They added the area was dark and next to an unlit lane, leading to it being “identified as a hazard for staff safety during winter months”.

If approved, the new car park would go at the front of the site on an unused patch of grass and be properly surfaced, with extra trees being planted to screen the parked cars from nearby houses.

A report on the car park project by development management officer Hannah Blackburn, which will go before the planning meeting, said: “The proposal would allow the problems with the existing car park to be addressed.

“These are that it has been identified as a potential health and safety hazard, with no barriers to the children’s play area and no lighting, and it has a plastic mesh surface which has sunk and results in staff parking on the road when muddy.”

Officers also said any loss of views from classrooms caused by the car park and landscaping measures “should be balanced against the benefits to the health and safety of pupils from separating vehicles from play areas”.