Parents accuse council of putting children at risk after opening Covid test centre in school car park in Milton Keynes

The mobile centre opened yesterday (Wednesday) in a car park on Soskin Drive in Stantonbury.

The car park is used by parents to drop off and pick up Year 10 pupils at Stantonbury International School. It is also close to a children's day nursery and an athletics stadium.

"People going to be tested are told to keep their car windows and doors shut. How can we do this when we're dropping off children just a few metres away?" said one parent.

Another said: "This is a totally ridiculous and badly thought out location with a whole year group of students and parents dropping off and picking up in the area."

Stantonbury International School already has problems with Covid and has experienced multiple confirmed cases among students and staff. Over the past couple of weeks it has has to close five different year groups for pupils to isolate.

An MK Council spokesman told the Citizen today: “The Mobile Testing Unit (MTU) in Stantonbury is based on Soskin Drive and is open to booked appointments only through the national Test & Trace system. The MTU will operate on three further dates this month - Friday 9 October, Wednesday 14 October and Friday 16 October.

"Parking on Soskin Drive serves the local community including the Athletics Stadium and secondary school. We appreciate this is an important area for local people and are making every effort to minimise the amount of time this area is out of use.”