‘It was war’: school-run parents tackle petrol crisis traffic chaos

Residents set up traffic patrol to challenge drivers forming long polluting queues near London school

Bounds Green primary school sits on a road so busy it has a bridge for a pedestrian crossing. Even on a good day the air is acrid, suffused by mephitic fumes belched continuously by traffic on the A109, which bisects this north London neighbourhood.

But over recent weeks, with the fuel crisis turning the nearby petrol station into a magnet for drivers scouring the city for fuel, good days have been seldom.