Last Thursday I sent the following email to the head of St Philomena's but have not received a reply.

I pass the Carshalton Station bus stop, on the side travelling into Wallington, every day at about 3.15pm.

The pavement there is not particularly narrow but is invariably blocked by a large group of St Phil's girls, who mill around in groups, forcing pedestrians to walk in the road to get around them.

The shrieking, yelling and general noise makes it difficult to communicate to them that one wishes to pass, although I will say that when the message eventually gets through they are always very good about moving.

Last week, however, I had to take the bus into Wallington with them and was subjected to the behaviour of the girls trying to board the bus.

I was carrying a small child, and had been at the stop before most of the girls arrived, however I was shoved and kicked by girls trying to force their way onto the bus ahead of me.

The chaos and noise was so great that the driver turned off the engine to the bus and refused to move until girls had stopped forcing back the doors and hanging off of the door handle.

Two of the girls were particularly aggressive, ironically one of those two was apparently a prefect - they nearly knocked me off of my feet trying to force me forwards, and then carried out a shouted conversation for the entire journey, centered around getting off the bus so that they could meet up with their friends who hadn't boarded successfully at Carshalton Station.

The bus cleared somewhat at Wallington (where a young lady in a Carshalton Girl's School uniform kindly gave up her seat for me and my son), and I was able to see that in the back of the bus, girls in St Phil's uniforms were sprawling across and blocking off seats, taking up far more room than necessary and making it impossible for other passengers to sit or, presumably, board the bus at all.

I realise that buses at this time of day are apt to be crowded but it should not be completely impossible to use them.

This letter writer has supplied their name and address but has asked not to be named.

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