DISABLED residents of a Wrexham housing estate are planning a blockade to highlight how their lives are being blighted by thoughtless parkers.

They will create a chain across Thomas Court today to prevent parents using their pavements and driveways while they pick up their children from nearby Ysgol Bodhyfryd.

They claim problem parkers have failed to heed to their appeals even though residents - many who are affected by long-term conditions such as MS and cerebral palsy - have found carers are unable too reach them in their vehicles during school opening and closing times.

Residents in Shields Court and Monger Road have also been troubled and Mark Stephens, who has organised the protest action, says some parents have reacted angrily when they have been told they are making lives difficult for the elderly and people with health problems.

“We’ve had parents have a go at us when we’ve asked them if they could move their cars as they’re parking on our pavements and drives,” said Mr Stephens, 56, of Monger Road.

The Leader:

Mark Stephens and Mark Williams man the protest

“They chased a double amputee up his drive after he asked them to move on. At school times we can’t get out of our drives as we’re blocked in.

“They have been told that there is a car park on Bryn-Y-Cabanau, but they just don’t want to listen.”

Wheelchair-bound Mark Williams lives on Thomas Court and the 57-year-old, who suffers from cerebral palsy, needs support from carers, yet they have found themselves regularly unable to get near to his home.

The group has enlisted the help of local councillor Graham Rogers who has arranged for Wrexham Council Highways officers to visit Thomas Court along with school governors to examine the problem at peak time.

“When they are here we are going to put the chain across from the two entrance posts to prevent the parents getting on. Something needs to be done as it is getting worse month by month,” added Mr Stephens. “We are prisoners in our own homes.

The Leader:

Mark Stephens

“I’ve been a tenant here for 24 years and Mark (Williams) has been here even longer than me. We’re fed up and nothing is being done about it.

“It’s a joke that some of the parents even seem to think it is funny blocking us in.”

The residents are demanding a raft of measures, including speed restrictions.

A spokesman for Wrexham Council said: “Officers have arranged to meet the school’s headteacher and the local elected member to discuss this issue further.”