PARENTS parking illegally outside a school, blocking drives and causing chaos, are set to get £30 fines – and if that doesn't work, yellow lines could be put in.

PARENTS parking illegally outside a school, blocking drives and causing chaos, are set to get £30 fines – and if that doesn't work, yellow lines could be put in.

Parish councillors at Trimley St Mary have become so frustrated at the traffic danger outside the village school they say the time has come for tough action.

One parent was spotted this week leaving a car on the no parking zone outside the school, and residents have complained about people parking across and on driveways, and are worried about emergency access.

Councillor Bryan Frost said: "This problem outside the school has got very severe – I counted 47 vehicles outside there the other afternoon and more both sides of Station Road.

"I think more should be done to make parents aware that they should not park there and that it is not acceptable.

"It's got beyond a joke and I think now we should cut to the chase and take some real action."

Mr Frost said yellow lines had been placed outside other schools in the Felixstowe area to prohibit parking during school delivery and collecting times.

He accepted this could move the problem further down High Road but hoped parents would then see it was just as easy and more beneficial to walk their children to school.

He said: "I don't accept that this problem is insurmountable and I think we should be taking some action."

The parish council agreed to ask head teacher Richard Griffiths to send home a letter to parents urging them not to park on the High Road close to the school, and also to ask the police to attend morning and afternoon to issue tickets.

The council would then consider whether the county council highways department should be asked for yellow lines.

Council chairman Richard Kerry said: "If people start getting tickets on their windscreens then maybe they will get the message."

Councillor David Southgate accepted the council's concern but said previously the council had been told by the police that the parking did at least slow traffic down and make the area safer for children to cross.

n What do you think of the parking outside Trimley St Mary Primary School? How can parents be persuaded to walk their children to school? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail EveningStarLetters@eveningstar.co.uk