A parent who has avidly campaigned to solve a dangerous parking problem is already seeing bad habits returning as school resumes.

Ipswich Star: Broke Hall Primary School.Broke Hall Primary School.

Since September last year, Wendy Kinsbury has worked hard to tackle parking issues outside Broke Hall Community Primary School in Rushmere St Andrew.

The 43-year-old, who has an eight-year-old son attending the school, patrolled Chatsworth Drive at pick-up and drop-off time along with 20 other parents, giving out leaflets and photographing repeat offenders.

In three months, the parent patrol reduced the number of illegally parked cars from around 30 per day to just two.

Mrs Kinsbury said: “We have started noticing cars coming back.

“We had three or four yesterday. It’s not the huge numbers we had back in September but we are definitely starting to see cars creeping back.”

In November, the campaigners were advised by Kesgrave and Rushmere St Andrew’s police community support officer Mike Sarbutts to leave the problem in the hands of the police.

Mrs Kinsbury continues to silently monitor the problem when the police are not on duty to take note of repeat offenders.

“I do think if momentum isn’t continued it will go back to how it was,” she said.

“Hopefully it will stay on track – you do need other people to get involved.”

The mother-of-one has planned to have a meeting with Rushmere St Andrew Parish Council, parents, teachers and police to work out a way forward in the new term. She said while her son was still at the school, she would persevere to fight the problem until someone else took over.

“It’s an improvement and I’m hoping that other people will pick up the baton,” she added. “It is something that always needs to be monitored and if everyone worked together it could be cured.”

The school’s headteacher, Jenny Barr, said she was pleased with the improvements there had been in regards to the parking issues.

“As a school, we have begun the review of the School’s Travel Plan and will be sending out questionnaires to children and parents as part of this process,” she added.

“This review is likely to highlight additional challenges, particularly those related to poor weather equals poor parking, but the safety of our children is paramount, therefore we must address the issues.”

The Ipswich Star launched the Park Smart campaign to raise awareness of the dangers posed by parking close to the school gates and improve road safety.