ANGRY Fair Oak parents are calling for a proposed experimental closure of a school gate used by hundreds of pupils to be put on hold until a "safe" access to the Wyvern Technology College campus can be arranged.

Letters went out from Wyvern and the adjoining Fair Oak Junior and Fair Oak Infant Schools just three days before the half-term holiday informing parents of a move to temporarily shut off the pedestrian access that provides a backway into the college.

Parents were told: "Eastleigh Borough Council has asked us to assist with an experiment they wish to make to see whether congestion in the area can be improved.

"They have asked us, for the two weeks after half-term, to close the Elland Close gate at all times during the day and night."

The letter said all three schools had agreed to try it for two weeks from Monday, November 5 to Sunday, November 18, and added: "This arrangement will obviously take a little bit of settling in. Pedestrians will have to walk up the cemetery path and in the front gates of the campus."

But angry parents are claiming it will mean their children now have to face using an unlit pathway strewn with dog mess, come out on the busy Botley Road and then use an access that is already congested.

Debbie Lawrence, of Trafford Road, Fair Oak, said: "There are three schools there and we estimate 2,000 children will be forced to use the same access within 30 minutes. We have no crossing in Botley Road and the entrance into the college isn't safe now." Nikki Howell, of Dean Road, Fair Oak, said it was particularly galling for parents who had previously either walked with or allowed their children to walk to school using the Elland Close gate, which had been open for more than 17 years. "We are walkers and this is what they are trying to encourage. We walk to school yet we are the ones who can't get through the gate."

Mrs Howell, who has a child in each of the schools, added: "My nine-year-old son, David, could walk to school without crossing any main roads, but now I'm not prepared for him to do that."

She said children forced to use Botley Road to get to the junior and infant schools would not only be alongside a busy main road but would also have to cross service roads to the schools with cars going in and out all the time.

Mrs Howell said: "Parents using the main road are saying that it is bad enough walking up there without any extra people using it. All the Wyvern kids from Bishopstoke come through here and use the Elland Close gate."

Debbie White, of Trafford Road, said parents on the locally-dubbed "football estate" agreed that car drivers parking inconsiderately while dropping off children in Selhurst Way to use the Elland Close gate should be dealt with.

But she also called for the experimental closure to be shelved until there was at least one "safe" route into the school.

Eastleigh council's transport policy manager, Rhod Macleod, told the Daily Echo: "The Borough Council has asked the school to close the gate for a trial period as part of the school travel plan.

"This will allow time to assess the effects that gate closure would have on reducing the number of parents who are driving into local estate roads to drop off their children.

"Excessive numbers of vehicles are inconveniencing local residents and are a safety hazard for those children who are walking to school."

He said the timing of the closure had been left to the discretion of the schools.

Mr Macleod added: "At the moment, the plan is to close the gate, although further consideration is being given to the duration of the closure."