Extra traffic wardens to fine drivers who park badly outside Longtown school
Last updated at 12:20, Friday, 12 March 2010
Parents who park illegally when taking their children to and from school could soon end up with a fixed penalty fine.
Cumbria County Council is planning to employ extra traffic wardens to patrol outside schools.
Schools in rural areas, including Brampton and Longtown, will get seven visits a year by wardens and each school in the urban part of Carlisle will get 11 visits.
A report to councillors says: “For many years there have been regular concerns about road-safety issues near schools due to parents parking while collecting and dropping off children.
“To try and assist in controlling this largely indiscriminate parking, city council parking attendants occasionally visit schools.
“During such visits it is usual for parents to rapidly move their cars while the attendants are present, they then return to their bad practices later. It is proposed that dedicated parking attendants could be allocated to provide regular daily visits to schools around the district.”
St Michael’s School in Dalston is the latest to suffer parking problems.
Police promised action last month after residents complained that parked cars were a safety hazard putting children’s lives at risk.
In 2004, Ian Mackay, then the head of Scotby School, near Carlisle threatened to name parents guilty of inconsiderate parking in the school’s newsletter.
If the proposals to the local committee are approved, the county will pay the city council £27,000 a year to employ wardens for an extra 1,259 hours just to target schools.
The money has come from a £57,000 underspend on the budget for school lollipop men and women, which has arisen because eight of the 19 crossing-patrol posts are vacant.
The rest of the cash will be used for road-safety initiatives for youngsters.
These include £5,000 for the ‘pass-plus’ scheme to provide extra tuition for newly-qualified young drivers, £5,000 to improve access to Bewcastle School and £10,000 for automated beacons at Warwick Bridge and Cumwhinton schools.
First published at 11:26, Wednesday, 10 March 2010
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk
You're right Charlie, a high level of children start school these days unable to use the toilet, and some still wear nappies. There again, some of the parents are just out of nappies which is probably the cause of the problem.
View all 27 comments on this article
Have your say
These wardens need to make a point of visiting St Margaret Mary's Primary School on Kirklands Road at school coming out time. On the Scalegate Road end is a double roundabout (at the top of Mount Pleasant) and the exit onto Scalegate Road from Kirklands Road is a blind exit. When schools are coming out though this junction is an accident waiting to happen as parents from this school insist on parking right on the corners at the junction, making it even more dangerous to emerge from Kirklands Road than it normally is. Some double yellow lines need painted around this junction and these need enforced with vigour before someone is seriously injured or worse.
Posted by Concerned local resident on 14 March 2010 at 18:48