GRIDLOCKED streets around a York school could be eased if councillors give a congestion-busting new access road the thumbs-up.

St Peter's School, in Clifton, wants to build a new road on its campus to help reduce the traffic caused by children travelling to and leaving school.

But the road is just one of three applications submitted to City of York Council in a £1.5 million investment.

School chiefs also want to build new changing rooms and two all-weather pitches on the site.

The new access road, which would lead from Westminster Road and The Avenue, would allow parents to drop off and collect children at the school's lower campus - formerly Queen Anne's School.

This means they would not have to run through the residential streets of North Parade and Queen Anne Road.

Residents in the two streets have complained vociferously about the volume of vehicles filling their streets since the school became part of the St Peter's site in December 2001.

The new access road would run parallel with a public footpath which cuts across the campus and would allow vehicles to travel to a drop-off and turning area.

A St Peter's School spokesman said: "When we originally acquired the former Queen Anne School and incorporated it into our campus we thought we would be able to accommodate the traffic from the three schools within the main site, but this has unfortunately proved unworkable and potentially dangerous.

"The subsequent use of Queen Anne Road and North Parade by parents dropping off and collecting their children has caused traffic problems and led to a number of complaints from residents.

"We do want to be good neighbours and we have tried instituting a number of measures to alleviate the situation but with only very limited success.

"We have consulted planning and traffic experts, spoken to the police, liaised with affected residents and considered every possible alternative. We now believe the most sensible and workable solution is to create a new access road across the campus from Westminster Road and The Avenue boundary so that parents bringing their children to school by car will not have to use the very narrow and restricted Queen Anne Road and North Parade."

St Peter's is also seeking to build new changing rooms on its lower campus and to create two all-weather, floodlit, astro-turf pitches.

The pitches will improve sports facilities for pupils but will also be available for hire by local sports clubs.

The plans will be considered by council chiefs in the coming weeks.

Updated: 10:18 Thursday, March 10, 2005