Corby Neighbourhood Policing Team

Your Neighbourhood Policing teams regularly undertake public consultation to determine the most significant concerns within the local community. A recurring theme is road safety and virtually all schools experience traffic congestion issues during drop off and pick up times. We regularly receive complaints about inconsiderate and dangerous parking around schools.

Examples include parking on pavements, causing obstructions, blocking driveways, parking on double yellow lines and allowing children to exit vehicles whilst stopped on School Keep Clear ‘zig-zags’ or in queuing traffic. There have even been instances of abusive and threatening behaviour by parents and carers.

This behaviour and standard of driving and parking are wholly unacceptable and most importantly put your children’s safety at risk.  As such we appeal to you to consider the following during these periods:

• Park with consideration to residents – do not block or overlap driveways.
• Do not park on the corners of junctions as you reduce views making it awkward for vehicles to safely turn into or out of a street.
• Do not stop on or park across pedestrian crossings or school zig-zag markings
• Do not drive along pavements when the road is blocked – be patient and wait for traffic to clear.
• On congested routes plan-ahead and do not proceed unless there is a clear space to use to give way to oncoming traffic or to allow traffic to give way to you.
• If possible; join with other parents and share journeys to reduce the number of vehicles used and/or avoid congested routes.
• Be aware that children do not easily judge the speed of traffic and may step out into the road. 30mph is a limit, not a target and much slower speeds are often required to negotiate busy roads safely.
• Pedestrians, especially with young children, should use the side of the road with the widest pathway and wherever possible protected from flowing traffic by barriers or parked cars.
• Turn off your engine when parked – engines left idling contribute to air pollution.
• Behave in a manner than is respectful towards others – including pedestrians and local residents.

The above list is not exhaustive and there will be occasions where drivers or pedestrians will make errors of judgement, especially under pressure. We are all human so please be patient. Corby has many schools and officers will complete ad-hoc checks and challenge people where appropriate. Persistent obstructive parking may result in drivers receiving a fine and this is easily avoidable with a little more thought as to where to park or wait.

Despite the number of complaints, we know that most people do want to do the right thing and drive safely and responsibly. We therefore request that you remember the points above when parking, dropping off or collecting children from school.