Parents urged to park responsibly at schools

Parents and carers in County Durham are being reminded to park responsibly at the school gates, as part of a new campaign.

Durham County Council’s road safety team has joined forces with Durham Constabulary and Ron Hogg, the region’s police, crime and victims’ commissioner, to launch the Safer School Gate Parking campaign during Walk to School Week.

Organised by Living Streets, Walk to School Week (20-24 May) aims to showcase how walking can benefit the whole community as well as improve individual wellbeing.

As well as advocating safer and more considerate parking at schools, the Durham campaign encourages parents to take active journeys to school – through schemes such as Park and Stride, which advises parking five or 10 minutes from school and walking the rest of the way.

In support of the campaign, Durham’s road safety team has developed a range of resources – including outdoor vinyl banners and safer school gate parking leaflets.

It has also published a new toolkit to help schools address their parking issues with sustainable travel solutions – with a ‘how to’ guide to enable schools to set up their chosen scheme.

Cllr Brian Stephens, cabinet member for neighbourhoods and local partnerships, said: “We are encouraging parents and carers to think of alternative and more sustainable ways to do the school run, which will not only benefit children’s safety but will benefit the environment too.

“We hear regularly from concerned, parents, teachers and local residents about the problems that irresponsible parking can cause. We are hoping that schools across the county will take advantage of these fantastic resources and help make all our streets safer.”