Children to educate parents on safer parking at schools
A CAMPAIGN to educate parents who "inconsiderately" park outside schools and put children at risk is to be launched in Spondon.
Pupils have been forced to walk on busy roads because of parents parking on narrow pavements in dangerous places such as street corners.
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action: A campaign is to be launched to educate parents who "inconsiderately" park outside schools and put children at risk. Pupils are to design posters geared at educating their parents.
Other parents have been found to have blocked driveways or parked on double yellow lines.
Now, pupils at six Spondon schools will soon be asked to design posters geared at educating their parents about the dangers of inconsiderate parking.
Ruth Kellogg, who sits on the area's neighbourhood board, which came up with the scheme, said it was important to take action before an accident happened.
She said: "The action we're proposing is about prevention – we're not going to wait until something bad happens. At the moment, too many parents are parking in dangerous places such as on street corners.
"Children are having to walk on the road to get past but they're unable to see what's coming from around the bend.
"There's a lot of traffic that swings off the A52 and into Spondon – it's dangerous for the pupils to be on the road."
Head teachers are backing the scheme, which has received £2,600 of funding from the neighbourhood board.
As part of the campaign, pupils at the schools will design posters and the winning entries will be sent out to all parents.
On the back of the poster will be a letter addressed to "Mummy and Daddy" to raise awareness of road-safety issues and each will be signed by individual pupils. The letter will include road safety statistics and tips on how to avoid inconsiderate parking.
Schools will also write to persistent offenders during National Road Safety Week, which starts on November 23.
Mrs Kellogg, who works for Derby City Council's children and young persons department, said: "Some parents will argue they don't have time to walk their children to school because they have to go to work.
"I can sympathise with that, but a way round it could be to get up 15 minutes earlier or park a little further away from school in a safe place."
Part of the funding from the neighbourhood board will also be used to operate a walking bus, which involves a group of children walking to school with one or more adults. The aim of the walking bus is to reduce the number of cars taking children to school.
Gill Zelynskyj, head teacher at St Werburgh's C of E Primary School, said the scheme would cut the area's carbon footprint as well as ease parking problems.She said: "I'm fully supportive of encouraging pupils to walk to school."
The six schools in Spondon include Asterdale Primary School, Borrow Wood infant and junior schools, St Werburgh's, Springfield Primary School and West Park Community School.
4 Comments
by Rams Fan, Oakwood
Monday, October 05 2009, 8:49AM
“This is endemic across the county, unfortunately.
People park wherever it is convenient for themselves, whether that be outside their homes, at the shops or at schools.
The laws about parking on corners, on junctions, crests of hills, blocking pavements etc are all routinely ignored. I see panda cars carefully navigating through such obstacles without a thought to getting out and ticketing the offenders and, much as it's disappointing, it WILL take the death of a child or a serious accident to temporarily alleviate this problem, before slipping back into routine.
In a society where neighbourly spirit and sense of community are outdated principles, it'll take more than a few kids posters to change attitudes.”
by michelle, derby
Monday, October 05 2009, 8:37AM
“If parents are parking on double yellow lines, should there not be traffic wardens there to ticket them? People care less about the safety of children than they they do about the money in their pocket.”
by Tom, Sinfin
Monday, October 05 2009, 8:30AM
“Another thing that wound me up was that a fair number of these parents had driven no more than a few hundred yards!”
by Tom Fulep, Sinfin
Monday, October 05 2009, 8:29AM
“When my boys were at Redwood Junior School in Sinfin, it really wound me up to see inconsiderate parents continually parking across the yellow zig-zag lines at the front of the school. So I bought a big tin of paint and one evening spent a couple of hours repainting the lines. The very next morning it seemed nobody had noticed, as there were cars park all over my handy-work. Parents don't need educating. They need bloody fining for putting lives at risk.”