School bus ‘distress’ of four-year-olds stuck in Preston traffic chaos

Now families are demanding answers from contractors who failed to notify them of the delays on Blackpool Road, Preston in advance of the school run.

Some youngsters boarded the bus near Ashton Park at 8:20am on Monday and didn't reach St Mary's Catholic Primary in Lea - a journey of just over two miles - until 9:40am.

"It was distressing for them, very distressing," said school bursar Christine Lofthouse. "Some of them are only four-years-old and they had been stuck on the bus for all that time. Surely it shouldn't take an hour and 20 minutes to travel two-and-a-half miles.

"And it wasn't just the school bus. Other children were late getting dropped off because they were stuck in it. And it was just as bad going home. One mum picked her two children up from the after-school club and they didn't get home until 20 past seven."

Parish council member Christine Abram, who does the school run with her grandchildren said: "Parents have been going mad. No-one had any idea these temporary lights were going to spring up on Monday. It just typifies how we are treated up here, we never get told anything. What we need here is joined-up thinking, and that's something we don't seem to get in this part of Preston.”

The company whose school bus to St Mary's was caught up in the mayhem, Coastal Coaches of Warton, said they too were not aware of the temporary traffic lights in advance of Monday morning.

"It was a nightmare. The first we knew was when everyone was stuck in it," said Tom Holder. "We had a couple of buses using that route and when they hadn't returned by nine o'clock on Monday we checked the tracker and saw they were still stuck in it. It was 10 past 11 when one of them got back.

"The kids were all primary school children on the bus to St Mary's and it's a long time for kids of that age to be stuck on a bus. At one time the queue for coming out of Preston towards Lea was backed up down the dock road to the car garages."

A spokesman for highways authority Lancashire County Council said: "A number of traffic management measures were put in place along the A583 Blackpool Road on Monday relating to highway works connected to the private development at the former Lea Service Station.

"These measures were put in place to protect the safety of workers and members of the public and to avoid a full closure of the road. As soon as we realised the implemented traffic management was adversely effecting vehicle movements in the area we stepped in. We contacted the developers contractor and they have agreed to limit the use of the temporary signals to off-peak hours, which should help ease the situation at this location.

"Regrettably there will be a degree of disruption until the highway works relating to the private development are completed, which is envisaged as being by the end of the week. We would advise the travelling public to take this into consideration when planning their journey."