FED-UP residents of a busy Eastleigh town centre road have hit back at parents of schoolchildren, claiming they are contributing to a traffic nightmare that could cost a child's life.

People living in Toynbee Road are delighted council parking attendants are clamping down on mums and dads who use residents' spaces to drop off and collect their youngsters from The Crescent Primary School.

Wardens put advisory notices on vehicles outside the school, warning drivers who continued to park illegally after October 1 would be hit with tickets and a £60 fine.

It was part of a so-called 'softly-softly' approach in the run-up to the council taking over responsibility for street parking from the police.

However, it caused uproar among a section of parents, who claimed they had no alternative but to use residents' parking bays in the road. The school is unable to offer a pull-in facility and there were only four public bays in the street.

Scores of lorries use the road every day to make deliveries to a bakery, builders' merchant and several other industrial units in the street.

Resident David Downhill said people living in Toynbee Road had been campaigning for years over safety issues in the road.

He claimed it had been known for the road to become gridlocked because lorries could not get past parked cars.

He said: "You get lots of children messing around, you have heavy lorries plus parents' cars trying to find a parking space. It is a recipe for chaos.

"I'm terrified that one day a child will be killed or badly injured. Parents bringing their cars are not helping. I can sympathise that they do have a problem - but some live within walking distance and still travel by car.

"The general feeling of residents in the road is that they are absolutely fed-up with it. Traffic wardens came down the other day and I offered to buy them a cup of tea each and a pint of beer if ever I saw them in a pub."

Residents say parents arrive up to an hour before the end of the school day to be sure of getting a space in residents' parking bays.

Toynbee Road resident Lynne Furnell said: "If they were there five to ten minutes we might be a bit more reasonable about it.

"But if we have visitors and they park in the road they have to use permits even for five or ten minutes. Why should the parents have the luxury of sitting there for an hour?"

Residents say Eastleigh council promised a traffic study of the road three years ago but they have heard nothing since.

An Eastleigh council spokesman said: "Historically, there have always been industrial units at the end of the road and although used by heavy vehicles, access has to be maintained.

"The council has worked with the school to develop a school travel plan in a bid to make cycling and walking to The Crescent safer."