Dominic Bareham A ROW over an unmade private road - blamed for making school-children muddy - is rumbling on after pupils' parents accused a developer of creating the problems.

Dominic Bareham

A ROW over an unmade private road - blamed for making school-children muddy - is rumbling on after pupils' parents accused a developer of creating the problems.

Anger is being directed at Richard Teasdale, who is building a two-bedroom bungalow, because parents believe construction vehicles have churned up the grass verge of a footpath running along the northern side of School Lane, Caister, which is used by students attending Caister First and Nursery School.

Tania Haylett, of Covent Garden Road, Caister, refuted Mr Teasdale's suggestion in the Mercury two weeks ago that the road and path had become muddy when topsoil was moved from the construction site to the school playground after headteacher Brendan McCarney had asked for the soil to create a mound for children to play on.

Her daughter Hollie Haylett, aged five, attends the school and she said many of the children were getting muddy as far up as their coats because the lorries visiting the site in neighbouring Croft Road had damaged the pavement, leaving tyre tracks in the mud.

She said: “I am angry about the fact we are taking children to school down there and you have got little boys with mud splashed up their coats and they are asking them to trundle through classrooms with muddy feet and sit down in it.”

Joanne Chaplin, of High Street, backed up the comments and said children were often slipping and sliding as they walked into school.

Miss Chaplin, who has a son Jack, seven, the school, said: “It is the builders. They just drive down there and think they rule the roost.

“It is absolutely disgusting and the children are going to school covered in mud.”

But Mr Teasdale said the reason the road was muddy was because it did not have a proper surface and it was inevitable the lorries would create mud during the winter months when the weather was bad.

He said: “We have only gone with the plans that were passed by Great Yarmouth Borough Council. Obviously the lorries have not helped but there are still a lot of cars coming down there.

“There is no damage to the footpath but the road is an absolute mess.

“It was not looked after anyway before the development started and there is no reason why the lorries would have caused damage. They­ have just made a bit of mud.”

Councillor Pat Hacon said he had spoken to the developer who had agreed to repair any damage caused by the construction vehicles.

He has been leading a bid to get funding for a £600 surface along the footpath and managed to obtain an agreement from Caister Parish Council at a meeting on January 7 to provide financial support.