Council launches ‘Safer School Transport’ Initiative

school run parkingInconsiderate parking and reckless driving manoeuvres around our schools is, sadly, all too common.

Havering Council is to step up its response to the increasingly dangerous parking practices of a minority of parents who are putting children at serious risk while taking them to and from school.

Despite years of campaigns and requests for parents to behave responsibly, a small but determined minority are continuing to engage in increasingly dangerous parking practices which put the lives of children at risk on a daily basis.

Over the last year, Council parking enforcement officers have issued more than 1,200 tickets outside schools, with over 1,800 visits to 55 primary schools carried out. However, the limited number of enforcement officers means that they are not offering a sufficiently serious challenge to those parents determined to continue parking dangerously.

The Council has been urgently consulting with schools and will be designing a bespoke plan for each one, starting with five schools as pilots, including Engayne in Severn Drive, based on individual circumstances. There are a number of potential options that will be considered, including the introduction of a Public Space Protection Order.

·         Designing a drop off/pick up point within the school grounds, where possible

·         Closing roads around the school at the start and finish of the school day

·         Initiating a volunteer scheme, where teachers, parents and residents would, after training, be empowered to issue parking tickets

·        Organising a Public Space Protection Order under the Crime and Policing Act 2014, enforced by fixed CCTV cameras. This would allow for offending motorists to be fined £100 for each offence, with the threat of criminal prosecution for three or more offences. A ‘safe’ zone around the school would be pre-determined (with exemptions for residents and pre-agreed visitors) at specific times around morning opening and afternoon closing.

Schools will also be working on a series of options to help parents who wish to comply with the safety guidelines while trying to juggle other responsibilities such as travelling to work. These may include ‘walking buses’ to help larger groups of children to walk to school from fixed points some distance away, through to encouraging parents to leave home earlier, park further away and walk a few minutes to the school gates.

The schools which will be among the first to implement parking controls, which may include enhanced enforcement, are: Parsonage Farm, Ardleigh Green, Broadford, Wykeham and Engayne.

We will keep you updated on this important matter.

See here for the BBC report

2 Comments
  1. What about those parents who are not capable of walking their children to school or parking further away? (those with disabled parking badges)
    Closing roads would make school runs very difficult or impossible unless they took their children in late ( once roads reopened)
    Has this been considered?

    • Hi Rachel, that is the idea of piloting the schemes firstly so that exemptions, such as those you mention, can be fully worked through.

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