The school's planning application to build a new pedestrian pathway from the playground to a new entrance gate in Fielding Walk has resulted in 73 objections and 28 supporting comments on the Council's planning portal so far.  Main objections are associated with increased footfall in Fielding Walk and its adverse impact on noise and nature.

The school wants to install the pathway and gate to:

• ease pedestrian congestion at the Wyndham Road and Coombe Road entrances at main morning drop-off and afternoon collection;
• make the Coombe Road entrance more welcoming for Nursery and Reception age pupils by reducing pedestrian congestion;
• give parents and pupils who live to the south of the school better access to our site;
• give pupils better all-year round access to play facilities, including the pirate ship, sand-pit and mounds; Fielding Forest; climbing trees; log piles; logs, bridges and mounds.  Currently these facilities are not used during late Autumn and early Spring because the field becomes too wet and muddy;
• allow evacuation of pupils and staff away from the site, avoiding entrances near buildings, in the event of any major emergency.

The vast majority of our pupils live to the north-west, north and north-east of the school site.  We anticipate that these pupils and parents will continue to use our entrances in Wyndham Road and Coombe Road.  

However, the removal of school catchment areas for admission criteria several years ago has resulted in more pupils joining our school from south of the site.  We project that about 230 pupils living in or to the south of Haslemere Avenue, Fulmer Avenue, Ridley Avenue, Green Avenue and Elers Road are most likely to benefit from using the new entrance when they walk to school, either walking from the Midhurst Road or Northcroft Road entrance to Fielding Walk.  The new entrance may also reduce footfall at the junction of Wyndham / Midhurst Road, offering some pupils a safer walk to school.

Objections raise a number of concerns and include some misconceptions.  We do not believe that the increased footfall will cause significant additional noise or harm to Fielding Walk, specifically:

• access will only be at main drop-off and collection times with no after-school or community access for lettings now or in the future, irrespective of any multi-use games area development;
• keep both existing pedestrian entrances in Wyndham Road and Coombe Road;
• little additional noise or harm to the environment of Fielding Walk because our pupils and their parents will share, cherish and enjoy the tranquility of this small park on their walk to school; 
• rare anti-social behaviour towards neighbours because our pupils are supervised by parents or very rarely behave poorly on route to school;
• entrance gates skewed slightly towards Northcroft Road to better meet projected footfall;
• little, if any, additional litter because our school community is highly respectful of our surroundings and we will add litter bins to the pathway and new entrance for pupils to use; 
• no lighting is required because our gates will not be open after sunset or before sunrise at any time in the school year;
• footpath surfacing in Fielding Walk which is sufficient to meet the projected footfall spread between Northcroft and Midhurst entrances;
• no loss of playing field as a result of the carefully chosen proposed pathway route;
• some neighbours in Midhurst Road, Wyndham Road and Northcroft Road benefitting from reduced footfall with fewer pupils using Coombe Road and Wyndham Road entrances.

The Council's planning consultation portal closes on Friday 7th September.  The school would benefit from your support but we acknowledge that some parents may also object to the proposal:

• Ealing Council planning portal

More generally, we would like to gather your views in our own 4 question survey which will close on Friday 21st September:

• School survey, Fielding Walk entrance