Parents have welcomed calls to lift car parking charges while they are dropping their children off at Lydney CofE Community School.

There are traffic snarl-ups every day as people park on Bream Road to avoid the charges in the nearby car park.

Town councillor Alan Preest called for the amnesty on car parking charges saying it was only a matter of time before there was a bad accident caused by bottlenecks on the road.

"On one of these dark and dismal December days, with HGVs going up and down to Coleford, I do feel a major accident could happen," warned Alan.

"It has always been a problem and it is part of the reason I became a councillor 11 years ago when my stepson was almost run over.

"Before the charges came in that car park would be full but now there are only eight or nine cars – the rest are out on the road creating a bottleneck.

"I would like to see an amnesty from 8 to 9am and 2.45 to 3.45pm so the kids can be safely dropped off and collected.

"It would also help if some more parents walked their kids to and from school, but that's another issue."

Dad-of-four Tom Allen, 41, said: "The amnesty is a good idea and would make the road much safer.

"To just have a 15-minute window where parents could use the car park would solve everything."

Imelda Morley-Lyne, 25, walks her child to school but said the amnesty would be a good idea.

"It would free up the bottom of the road a bit and make it easier and safer for people with prams to cross the road," she said.

"It can get quite dangerous and there's a lot of cars braking sharply because they can't get through."

Another mum said: "The lollypop lady even finds it difficult because of the number of cars parked on the road so this would definitely help."

Deputy leader of the district council Brian Robinson said: "This is a matter we were looking into before car parking changes came in.

"Many people have been parking on the road outside the school which causes congestion and the car parking charges would give them more of a reason to do so.

"We've been looking into a solution whereby parents will be able to use the car park at those times but we have some legal issues to sort through before that can happen."

Brian confirmed he will be visiting the site to examine the issue of Bream Road car park being used as a rat-run during the rush-hour.