SIMPLE, and cheap, changes to roads around school entrances on Dorchester’s Manor Park estate have dramatically improved safety.

Local councillor Molly Rennie says that painting white lines on the road and making minor changes to some pavements and verges has transformed behaviour.

Cllr Rennie says the prior to the lines going down sporadic parking often led to potentially dangerous situations and pedestrians crossing wherever they could – but now everyone seems to know where they should, and shouldn’t be.

“It really does look like it is going to work and people are no longer trying to park to close to the school entrances. It would be nice, for a change, to write to Dorset Council and thank them,” she told the town council planning committee.

Both Rothsay Road and South Court Avenue, close to the first school and St Osmund’s, have been identified by local residents as areas which would benefit from parking restrictions.

Other areas which are being monitored for parking requests in the area include both sides of the junctions at Ashley Road and Monmouth Road and at Culliford Road South and Monmouth Road.

Already agreed for additional parking restrictions is the junction of Weatherbury Way and Mellstock Avenue.