Papworth Everard school shut for 25 years given new road markings

Road markings warn people to steer clear of the school that has not been operating for decades

Road markings warning people to keep clear of the entrance to a school have been painted outside the site 25 years after it closed.

They appeared in Papworth Everard in Cambridgeshire earlier this week.

Local councillor Mark Howell said it was a waste of time and money and Cambridgeshire County Council would be better off "putting it outside a school where they've actually got pupils".

The council apologised and said it would "look into what happened".

Mr Howell, a Conservative county councillor for Cambourne and district councillor for Caxton and Papworth, said when he spotted the new markings, he thought "this looks very unusual".

"Outside what was a school - 25 years ago - there's some very smart, very brightly painted yellow lines saying 'school, keep clear'," he said.

The building in Papworth Everard has not been a school for 25 years

He said up until about 10 years ago the building was used by the education department at Cambridgeshire County Council for storage, but the school moved 25 years ago to another part of the village.

He said even without the markings, people would be unlikely to park there as it was "an inconvenient place to park, right opposite a bus stop - and there's a car park right behind the bus stop which is where all the shops are".

"I think that somebody in the map department [at the county council] needs to update their maps," he said.

"It's a waste of people's time and also a waste of money, and maybe they should have spent this time and money on putting it outside a school where they've actually got pupils."

In a statement, Cambridgeshire County Council said: "We apologise for the mistake with these road markings and we will look into what happened."