CONCERNED residents are appealing to the ombudsman after Sir William Borlase's Grammar School in Marlow was given planning consent to build a teachers' car park.

The group, led by Bill Purdie, who lives next to the school, thinks there will be a serious accident in the car park if it is built.

The school was given planning permission following a presentation at a Wycombe District Council meeting last week.

Mr Purdie said the poor visibility coming out of the earmarked site and on to the busy route into Marlow was a recipe for disaster, adding: "We live absolutely next door to the proposed site and getting out in the mornings is a hell of a job. There's tremendous potential for a serious accident. With so many students on the pavements and so much traffic the potential is pretty horrific."

Doctor Peter Holding, headmaster at the West Street grammar school, said that the new car park would actually improve safety. He added: "We have 12 teachers driving in and out of the school twice a day at peak times to drop off books and then go and park. This car park would stop that and therefore decrease the amount of traffic coming out on to West Street."

A spokesman for the district council said the Highways Authority was consulted on the proposal.