AN ONLINE petition has been started after an overwhelming response to calls for action to stop coaches from using local estate roads to get to Halesowen College.
More than 500 people have already signed a paper petition calling for something to be done about the huge number of coaches using small roads on the Haden Coppice Estate to get to Whittingham Road, where the college, which has more than 4,500 pupils, is based.
Councillor Simon Phipps, who is backing residents, set up an online version of the petition after being inundated with requests from people on Facebook wanting to know where they could sign it.
And more than 130 people have already put their names to the online petition.
Cllr Phipps said: "I have had to produce an online version of this petition due to the interest the story has generated on Facebook.
"It clearly shows that it's an issue on a lot of people's minds."
The petition states: "Residents have been increasingly concerned about the volume of coaches using small, residential roads through the Haden Coppice estate to get to Halesowen College. "Residents have observed up to fifteen coaches, maybe even more, during a short time period using these roads, causing disruption, congestion and sometimes a danger to other road users and pedestrians.
"We, the undersigned, call on the relevant authorities to take measures to reduce the amount of coaches using these roads by ensuring that more coaches can drop students off on larger roads, such as Furnace Lane, and look into other alternatives thus reducing the number of coaches in the roads that were never intended for vehicles as large as them."
Cllr Phipps will hand the petition to the college, police, Dudley Council and Prospect Coaches, which runs the service.
The paper petition was started by 71-year-old grandmother-of-two Sheila Saunders, of Fairmile Road, who said more than 30 coaches pass her house every day.
Halesowen College and Prospect Coaches have said they liaise with the local community and that they are looking at a longer-term solution to provide "sustainable coach parking and access."
The petition can be found at http://chng.it/ncXtgfxMN5
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