Skip to main content

Safer parking around schools

The police, local highway authority and ward councillors often receive concerns from members of our communities, schools and colleges regarding inconsiderate and often dangerous parental parking outside schools at the beginning and end of each school day.

Parking restrictions are put in place to manage the highway network and to ensure the safety of all road users, vehicles and pedestrians alike. Cars parking inconsiderately, especially on zigzag lines, cause visibility issues for pedestrians of all ages and ability who are crossing the road network to get to and from school.

While we want to encourage sustainable travel to school, especially walking, we recognise that some parents will have to use the car for at least part of their journey to school.

However it’s important for us to:

  • Reduce congestion around school in improve air quality
  • Make the route to school safer for children
  • Show respect to local residents

Unfortunately, most schools experience a small minority of parents who choose to ignore the parking restrictions.

Driving to school? Please remember:

  • 'School Keep Clear' are clearways, meaning no stopping and definitely no parking, not even to drop off or pick up any passengers. These markings are designed to allow a clear view up and down the road for children to cross safely before and after school. If you stop, even to drop off, on these lines, you are making it dangerous for children to cross by obscuring their view.
  • park in a way that does not obscure the view of any school crossing patrol – avoid parking on the stretch of the road opposite the zigzags, especially if this means you have to park on the pavement to do so. 
  • keep the view around junctions clear so that children can cross safely. 
  • parking on a bend can cause difficulties, making visibility difficult.
  • be considerate to local residents by avoiding parking across or turning around in driveways or parking on the grass verges. Most people like the grass verges and don’t like to see them churned up.
  • try to park further away from school. This has several advantages – you will find it easier to find a space and to turn your car around for your return journey. It will also be an opportunity for your children to practise walking safely with you by teaching them pedestrian road safety skills. Walking the last part of the journey to school is also good for your child’s mental and physical health. 
  • keep your car off the pavement at all times. No one (especially children, people with a pushchair, in a wheelchair or with reduced mobility) should have to step on the road because of cars parked on the pavement. 
  • performing U-turns in junctions is a dangerous manoeuvre and it makes it difficult for other road users (especially children) to understand your intentions.  
  • remember that it is much safer for your child to enter and exit your car from the safest side i.e. opposite the side of the road.
  • turn off your engine as soon as your vehicle is parked. 

The locations below can be enforced by police officers and the city’s civil enforcement officers. Therefore please:

  • do not park on double yellow lines and yellow School Keep Clears markings
  • do not park in a way that blocks access to dropped kerbs or any other pedestrian crossings 
  • do not park in a way that blocks residents’ driveways
  • do not park within 10 metres of a junction

School walking maps

Find your school’s 5 to10 minute zone walking map

Help to make the school journey safer, healthy and better for everyone!