The Academy undertook our latest action day on Tuesday 27 September to address issues of parent and visitor parking on the highways around the school, particularly on the double yellow markings and permit holder bays on Woodside Road.
We were joined by colleagues from the neighbourhood policing team and Bradford council wardens at drop off and pick up time, who provided words of advice to drivers and enforcement where necessary. In addition, we also agreed to support colleagues from the DVSA, VOSA and taxi licensing who used facilities around the Academy throughout the rest of the day to do stop checks with motorists on Woodside Road. This led to those agencies taking the following action against a number of offenders:
16 Traffic Offence Reports (Tickets)
3 Drivers reported for summons, including two disqualified drivers.
1 vehicle seizure
1 vehicle defect notice (requiring driver to fix the issues)
1 Arrest of a male wanted for domestic offences.
1 Stop Search (Drugs)
5 intelligence submissions
Environmental enforcement issued 3 producers.
DVSA prohibited 5 vehicles with dangerous defects.
Taxi licencing suspended two licences for issues with vehicles.
We would like to thank our colleagues from the South Bradford policing team and Bradford Council for their support with these issues.
We would also once again ask parents and visitors to be considerate of our neighbours and local residents when dropping off or collecting children at school, or if you need to visit site. Please do not park in a way that obstructs driveways, the highway, access roads or properties. Please do not park on double yellow lines, the pavement or the permit holder bays on Woodside Road. When using our car park, please only park in designated bays – do not park on pavements or crossings. If spaces are not available, you must leave the car park and loop back using the filter lane on the main road until a space becomes free. There are also a number of areas further up Woodside Road and closer to the village – which are only a short walk from school – where you could park legally and then bring to children to school or drop them off/collect them.
We understand that there can be frustration at the size of our car park. However, this issue goes back to the funding available to the Council for facilities on this site at the time that the Academy was built. We must manage the car park in a way that makes it safe for our pupils first and foremost. This means we do restrict access by only opening gates at certain times to ensure safe pedestrian access, and asking parents to loop around the filter road outside when looking for spaces. However, as we have also pointed out before, more than 96% of our children live within one mile of the Academy site, and if we could encourage a growing number to walk to school, or use public transport, the environment around school would be a much calmer, safer and less polluting one for all.
We will continue to undertake initiatives with the police and council to further address parking issues and any instances of unsafe use of the highways around the Academy, this will include enforcement action of the type outlined above. We will also announce some new initiatives to encourage walking in the near future.
We would like to thank parents and visitors for your cooperation in this matter, and hope you would agree that the action taken this week, and the offences various agencies were able to deal with as a result of this, make our community a safer one for all of us.
