Ipswich: Primary school to launch campaign aimed at tackling problem parking

Park Smart campaign (Image: Archant)

Staff at Broke Hall Primary School have received an “increasing number of concerns and complaints” about issues including parking on yellow lines or zigzags, blocking the drives of residents and parking on kerbs.

To tackle the problem, the school is now promoting ‘safe, legal and considerate’ parking and is adamant it wants to resolve the issue, not just move it to another area. It aims to work with the whole community.

Headteacher Jenny Barr said: “The vast majority of parents and carers at school support us in wanting to resolve this issue.

“We have launched our campaign with letters from the school, banners outside the school, parental monitoring of the situation, working with the road safety team from the local authority and letters from the police.

“The children will be designing ‘Safer Parking’ posters and we will be contacting local residents, asking if they would be prepared to display a poster either in their gardens or in their windows.

“We hope by adopting a whole community approach we will be able to keep our children safe.”

The initiative echoes the Ipswich Star’s Park Smart campaign, which is raising awareness of the potentially fatal situations parents are creating in the roads surrounding Ipswich’s primary schools.

It has also now emerged the schools has now had 650 high visibility jackets donated by Specsavers.

Mark Taggart, store director at Specsavers in Ipswich and Woodbridge, said: ‘With such dark mornings and nights, we wanted to play our part in helping the area’s youngsters to keep themselves safe.”

Stores in Ipswich, Felixstowe and Woodbridge have all collectively donated high visibility vests to school pupils in the region.