Parking at school times one of Barnsley councillor’s biggest complaints

Independent councillor Jake Lodge, who represents Worsbrough, asked officers during yesterday’s meeting of the borough’s overview and scrutiny committee: “What can be put in place to improve safety around parked cars, particularly at school times?

“One of the biggest complaints I’m getting at the minute – and I’m a parent myself, I walk my children to school, is parked cars, and it’s mostly morning and early afternoon, where they’re blocking the line of sight.

“Each school has got the zig zag lines outside, but they just park around them, which is causing issues then for residents who can’t get in and out of their drives.”

Damon Brown, network manager at Barnsley Council said: “It’s a really difficult one to tackle, because they’re not really parking, they’re usually waiting – so if there’s somebody in the vehicle, if a traffic warden appears, they drive away.

Mr Brown added that a video car, which used to capture images of drivers is now “out of service”.

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“I need to follow up on where we are with that and when we can bring that back into service,” added Mr Brown.

“I think it was a change in legislation that stopped us using it.

“We would need to see where we stand on current legislation and see if we can reactivate something along those lines.”

BMBC’s website states that Illegally parked vehicles “cost us thousands of pounds a year in damaged paving and grass verges, and are a potential hazard to pedestrians”.