St Philip’s Christian College relocated from South Cessnock to Nulkaba in 2012. Since that time the school has grown by more than 500 students. This has led to increased traffic congestion.

At school pick-up and drop-off times, cars and buses must use one entrance on Lomas Lane and battle traffic on Wine Country Drive.

The issue has also impacted passing motorists, who often go off-road to bypass the cars trying to turn into Lomas Lane. 

The school took the problem to RMS, which suggested the school “consider on-site management to help alleviate traffic congestion”.

Principal Darren Cox said he was frustrated that the school was required to control its own traffic.

“Why are we expected to manage cars on site?” Mr Cox said.

“Not one other school does that.”

Mr Cox said they had created another entrance on Lomas Lane, put four staff members on each day to manage traffic, and changed school start and finish times so they did not conflict with nearby Nulkaba Public School.

But he said this had still not created a solution to the bottleneck.

St Philip’s had 1050 students enrolled at the start of 2017. Mr Cox said the school had been approved for a population of 1200 students.

“RMS know that there will be 1200 students on this site,” he said.

“They’re still not working with us.”

Mr Cox said the school wanted a permanent solution to the traffic problem.

The principal said the school was hoping for a purpose-built roundabout on Wine Country Drive in front of the proposed new service station, which was approved in October.

The roundabout would provide access to the service station and a second entry point for the school.

Mr Cox said this would mean parents coming from Cessnock would be able to use the new entrance, while commuters from Pokolbin and Lovedale would have better access at Lomas Lane.

Mr Cox said the school was planning to enter a development application for the roundabout before construction of the service station started.