LOCAL residents have called for a fresh public consultation over a York school’s controversial transport proposals, which they say would fail to rid their streets of school buses and cars.

Householders from Fulfordgate, Eastward Avenue and Heslington Lane have written to an Interim Regional Schools Commissioner to complain about Fulford School’s consultation, which they have branded "tokenist window-dressing".

They claimed Department for Education guidance said academy trusts needed to demonstrate that a fair and open local consultation had been undertaken with all those who could be affected by proposed changes.

The Press reported last month that residents felt a golden opportunity to rid their streets of a twice-daily traffic nightmare was being wasted under proposals for a new access road directly into the school site from the A19 via Germany Beck.

Householders have complained for years about the “absolute chaos” in Fulfordgate every weekday morning and afternoon, when a convoy of school buses enter and leave Fulford School, and when parents also drop off and pick up their children.

They said they were baffled and frustrated when they found that the new road might only be used for accessing the school site and not for exiting it, with vehicles continuing to exit via Fulfordgate and Heslington Lane, meaning continuing congestion and danger.

Now, in a letter to Carol Grey, Interim Regional Schools Commissioner for East Midlands and the Humber, a group of residents has told of their "astonishment that anyone might view the school’s consultation ...as a credible and objective exercise, rather than the tokenist window-dressing it so clearly was".

They claimed: “Residents were shoehorned into a questionnaire aimed primarily at school parents, pupils and staff, among whose thousands our response as a distinct group will have been completely lost.”

They suggested the consultation should be withdrawn and re-run "before the project plunges further towards what could be a contentious planning application attracting much adverse publicity”.

The commissioner replied saying that with permanent enlargement of an academy’s buildings, academy trusts needed to demonstrate that a fair and open local consultation has been undertaken with all those who could be affected and had considered all responses received.

She said her team would discuss the concerns raised with South York MAT (Multi Academy Trust), of which the school is part.

School head teacher Steve Lewis was unavailable for comment but he has said previously that the school was "working closely with all stakeholders to minimise the amount of traffic coming through Fulfordgate," adding: “Consultation on school expansion is ongoing.”