Parents face £1,000 fine and criminal record for driving their children to school

Parents risk a huge fine and even a criminal record if they park in exclusion zones while taking their children to school.

Havering Council in Essex has decided to clamp down on mums and dads who are seen picking up or dropping off in the designated areas around four schools.

Anyone seen parking in the zones – that have extended to five streets around some schools – will be slapped with a fixed penalty notice of £100.

Failure to pay within 14 days, or being caught three times, will see the fine increased to a staggering £1,000, while offending parents will also see themselves handed a criminal record.

The council has decided to get tough with residents after numerous complaints from those living near the schools about parents who block people in by parking over driveways.

It is using Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPO) powers that were introduced by David Cameron’s government four years ago to enforce the new rules.

The PSPO legislation was originally introduced to make it easier for councils to outlaw anti-social activities like drug dealing in certain areas.

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Cameras have now been set up around the schools – James Oglethorpe and Engayne in Upminster, Parsonage Farm in Rainham and Wykeham in Hornchurch (top) – that monitor the zones between 8am and 9.30am, and 2.30pm and 4pm.

Police, traffic wardens and community support officers will also be out on patrol, while parents have been issued with information sheets warning them about the changes.

Disabled children and parents are exempt from the regulations.

The council said in a statement: “Havering council is taking action against the increasingly dangerous parking practices of a minority of parents who are putting children at serious risk when taking them to and from school.

“Despite years of campaigns and requests for parents to behave responsibly, a small but determined minority continue to park dangerously outside schools, putting the lives of children at risk on a daily basis.”

Havering council parking wardens have issued over 1,200 parking tickets in the course of 1,800 visits to 55 primary schools over the past year.

They added that cameras were needed as there are not enough parking wardens to police the streets.

Rosie Brighouse, spokesperson from Campaign group Liberty, said that PSPOs have the potential to endanger freedom.

She added: “Although more and more people have become aware of the absurd – and often cruel – ways PSPOs are being misused, it unfortunately looks like we’ll continue to see our freedoms chipped away in 2017.”

Havering councillor Jason Frost defended the measures, saying: “I would rather have complaints that we are slightly inconveniencing parents than hear that a child had been seriously injured because nothing was done.”

The scheme may be extended to more schools across the borough.

Top pic: Google