A MOVE to provide a bus parking area outside a North Yorkshire high school to avoid conflict with pedestrians has run into problems with highways chiefs.

A planning application for the bus zone outside Bedale High School goes before North Yorkshire County Council's planning committee on Tuesday.

But the county's highway authority has already expressed concern about the plan, saying it was premature, in light of consideration of a wider traffic management scheme for Bedale.

They believe the bus area would bring extra congestion at the junction of Benkhill Drive and Sussex Street.

Their objection adds: "The proposed bus layby would be easily blocked by parked cars and the proposal would result in pupils congregating and blocking the footway."

Meanwhile, the county's environmental service director, Mike Moore, points out that school buses currently access the site via a winding entrance, picking up pupils from the school car park.

"This creates a significant problem of pedestrian-vehicle conflict," he says.

If the scheme goes ahead, it would see a dedicated bus parking area close to the school boundary accessed directly from a residential road.