AN accident in Grays this morning (Monday, 8 December) has sparked renewed concerns about access to and from the Treetops special schools and congestion as people drop off and pick up their children.

The incident happened as a parent, who had just dropped off her child outside the Buxton Road entrance to the schools site, inadvertently went into reverse and hit a street light that toppled onto the porch of an adjacent house.

Homeowner Corinne Livermore said: "There was a huge bang. It sounded like a bomb went off.

"My daughter Lucy and I had just got my granddaughter ready for school and were about to leave the house when it happened.

"We were moments away from being out at the front of the house when the accident occurred. Who knows what might have happened if we had been outside, particularly if the lamppost had not struck the porch but come straight down.

"It was very frightening.

"The lady driver was extremely distressed and we tried to help her and calm her down.

"At the end of the day no-one has been hurt, which is the main thing.

"However, myself and other residents have been warning, for some time, that something like this - or worse- could happen.

"The traffic situation around Treetops has got worse since the additional Free School was opened. Something has to be done - next time it might not just be damage to property."

A spokesperson for Treetops said it was aware of the situation and expressed sympathy to all involved.

He added: "We are aware of residents' concerns and acknowledge there are traffic issues around the school which we are working very hard with the DfE and Thurrock Council to resolve and there have been delays not of our making."

Treetops CEO Paul Smith added: "When the Free School was built, Thurrock Highways agreed to commission and construct a new access road to the site, Treetops Approach.

"We were really pleased with this as we had been requesting it since the original Treetops School was built back in 2008. The schools, however, were not consulted about volumes of traffic or how we thought the access could be improved.

"When it was completed, we did initially close the access from Buxton Road.

"However, this resulted in some students being stuck on site waiting to leave for up to 45 minutes.

"As many of our students can exhibit very challenging behaviours, this was resulting in children and staff getting hurt so we had to reopen access down Buxton Road for traffic coming to and from Chadwell and Tilbury.

"This has eased the situation so most traffic can be off site within ten minutes.

"Alongside this, the Trust is working with the DfE and the local authority to reconfigure the internal layout of the site which should enable us to eventually close the Buxton Road gate apart from emergency vehicles, bikes and pedestrians."