Parents are being ‘ticketed’ for bad parking around a school in Manchester - by pupils

A new parking initiative by Greater Manchester Police and Tameside Council has introduced a different kind of parking space management around Manchester’s Russel Scott Primary School: instead of direct action by police, pupils from the primary school hand out ‘parking tickets’ to parents who do not respect the parking rules or show bad driving behaviour. The pupil’s ticket is a warning to car drivers, but anyone who is not reacting to this kind advice is in danger of receiving a penalty notice from police and council traffic officers the next time.

The aim of the action is to make the roads and area around Clare Street safer for pupils and their classmates. It had its origin in complaints coming in from parents, teachers and residents about poor parking and driving behaviour in the area of the school.

The initiative has its first results: traffic around the school is already said to have eased. The clear majority of parents have given positive feedback and are supporting the initiative. In their actions, pupils are directly backed up by police and Tameside Council employees when necessary. In addition to on-street actions, officers pay visits to the school to discuss the issue with pupils – hoping for the message to be taken home to their parents.

The initiative is a six week pilot, which is to be evaluated for a possible roll out to other schools. Greater Manchester Police has also published photos of the action in its GMP Tameside South’s Facebook page – giving further publicity to the action.

Story first published by “Manchester Evening News” on 27th of April 2018.