St Albans School first to try Chaos at the School Gate campaign

18 May 2004

Considerate parkers were rewarded by City Council parking wardens patrolling outside St Albans School, starting yesterday as part of the Chaos at the School Gate campaign.

The campaign aims to help address safety issues caused outside schools by people double-parking, parking on yellow lines and across property entrances when picking up or dropping children at school.

Spot prizes are being given to parents prepared to walk a few metres to the school gate with their children.  Light-weight parkas are being presented to good parkers to keep them dry on rainy days when the temptation is strongest to break the law to get as close as possible to the school gate.

This will be the first phase of a three-week campaign, after which infringement notices will be issued to any drivers who have not got the message that illegal, inconsiderate parking behaviour will not be tolerated because it endangers the most vulnerable road-users - our children.

St Albans School was chosen to trial the campaign because it has a long history of pro-active promotion of road safety within the classrooms and with the wider school community.

Road safety is incorporated into regular curriculum activities through the Road Sense programme, which St Albans School are celebrating with a special road safety day on today. During this week children are taking home information leaflets with tips for parents on how to keep kids safe on the road. Children’s road safety lessons will also be reinforced by messages on stickers and book labels they are given.

The Chaos at the School Gate campaign will continue at Wainoni School. Surveys will be carried out at each school before and after the campaign to gauge the effectiveness of this parking enforcement approach outside schools. If successful, the programme will be taken to other schools.

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