Car exclusion zone is the answer to school run mums

05 September 2007

ENVIRONMENTAL boffins have added more strength to the POST campaign to stop parents parking next to schools.

Experts at the Institute of European Environmental Policy say that car exclusion zones should be set up around schools to encourage children to walk to school.

They claim the move would help the environment and battle childhood obesity.

But residents think that such a tactic would also help the borough's school parking issues which has seen parents break the law and put children's lives in danger to grab spaces closer to schools.

Kirstie Clements, a mother who has complained about the state of parking close to Dorothy Barley School, said: "I think that an exclusion zone would be a really good idea.

"If we were to put a zone like that it would be safer for the children because there wouldn't be bad parking all down the road. It would be better from a health point of view as well because children would walk to school."

In 2005 the average parent drove 82 miles a year taking their children to school. Nutritionists claim that walking an extra hour a week could put off a weight gain of two stones over a period of ten years.

But some parents think an exclusion zone would just cause other problems.

Mum of five, Maureen Abotts, said: "It's all very well telling all the children to walk to school. In an ideal world that is the way, but the fact is there are nasty people out there who target children.

"We have to consider our children's safety as well as their health. I'd rather my child be a couple of pounds overweight than get kidnapped or something.

"If we had something like school buses then it would be ok, but just sending them off walking isn't as practical as it sounds.