Issue - meetings

To consider what can the Council do to alleviate car parking near schools.

The Chair introduced the meeting and welcomed everyone. He discussed the recent public consultation that had taken place and the high number of responses received in response to the press release

Earl Piggott-Smith, Scrutiny Officer, introduced the report.

Nick Broomhall, Service Lead, Traffic Safety, discussed the report further and explained how and why the issue of illegal and inconsiderate parking outside and near schools is a national problem and number of different approaches had been used to alleviate the problem, as detailed in the main report.

The Chair referred to the importance of working in partnership with parents and schools to find sustainable solutions to the problem and invited the witnesses to give their evidence in four separate sessions.

Session One: Living Streets - Tom Richards and Julia Crear.

Living StreetsWalk to School campaign is a UK charity aimed at achieving the goal of getting every child that can to walk to school by working with parents, children and schools to make walking safer, more pleasant and the easiest option for short journeys. The witnesses introduced themselves and summarised the aim of Living Streets scheme - which is to encourage and support everyday walking through a range of national schemes and events including Walk to School Week, and WOW – the year-round walk to school challenge.

Julia Crear outlined the work done with schools in Wolverhampton to promote walking as a safe option for children.

In response to questions from the Panel the witnesses stated the following:

·         The initiative involved joint working with schools, local authorities, parents and local businesses.

·         Several schools in Birmingham have been taking part in the initiative for the past 5 years.

·         A variety of campaigns including radio broadcasts were used to promote the scheme.

·         Incentives were given to schools that take part.

·         Letters were sent to parents encouraging them to participate.

·         Schools must meet certain criteria to join.

·         Staff would interact with parents at various stages of the scheme including launch day; parents’ evenings; at the school gates and via newsletters.

The Chair asked the witnesses for a recommendation they would like the panel to consider that would help the local authority to alleviate the problem of illegal and inconsiderate parking near schools. The witnesses stated it was crucial that the local authority and partners worked together. They stressed Transport Services, Road Safety, Highways, schools, land owners, law enforcement and parents needed to work together to solve the problem and enforcement should focus on persistent parking offenders.

The witnesses were thanked for attending the meeting and participating in the session.

Session Two: Schools

·         Jo Phillips, Director of Finance and Services, the Royal School

·         Mrs Tricia Scott, Headteacher, Loxdale Primary School

·         Emma Wright- Jones, Deputy Headteacher, Loxdale Primary School

The witnesses introduced themselves. They outlined the main parking issues at their schools and the measures they had taken to address them. They believed that educating parents was crucial and enforcement was needed to tackle persistent offenders. A number of different ideas had been  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5