Drive to cut down the school run

Parents could face fines for parking near schools under plans to boost walking, cycling and bus travel for pupils.

Education minister Lord Adonis said he wanted action because driving near schools led to more accidents as well as pollution and traffic jams.

Powers come into force next month requiring all local councils to promote more ecofriendly school transport. Some town halls, such as Camden, are restricting parking near school gates in a bid to force parents to walk with their children.

In the past 20 years, the number of pupils travelling to school by car has more than doubled.

Government research shows that 13 per cent of all urban car journeys on weekdays between 8am and 9am involve school runs. Other plans included using more US-style yellow school buses and extra funding for cycle lanes.

Margaret Morrissey from the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Assocations, said the plans were "unrealistic".

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in