WORRIED parents have pulled their children out of a new school because they fear toxic gases caused by traffic fumes are harming them.

And several more say they will look for a different school if nobody can convince them the air around Piper's Grove school is safe.

The primary school opened last month to replace Grove Street and is on the old Piper's Cottage car park behind Harborough Hill Road. But it is already facing a crisis as several parents are threatening to pull their children out of the school.

A council report last week revealed Harborough Hill - dubbed Death Row after residents suspected traffic fumes were causing a 'cancer cluster' - was the most polluted in Barnsley. Levels of the toxic gas, nitrogen dioxide, were found to be more than 50 per cent above recommended safety levels in places.

Parents fear the pollution will start affecting their children's health. One mum Marie Reynolds this week refused to send her children Nicole, nine, and Joshua, four, to Piper's Grove.

She said: "I am afraid I am not sending them to that school. According to the council report there is not just nitrogen dioxide but nitrogen oxide, lead and benzene.

"I don't know what they are breathing. Because it's warm the windows are open it's going into the classroom and I don't know what they are breathing.

"They are not going to school until this is resolved. It is not worth the risk - even if the council says it is safe, they need to prove it to me before I risk letting them go there."