FAMILIES of pupils attending the Vale’s largest primary school are pleading with irresponsible motorists to think about where they park during term-time.

Parents at Barry’s Romilly Primary School are urging all vehicle owners to drop children off in safe areas away from the school when pupils are leaving and entering the school grounds.

They fear that unless the long-established parking infringements end, a child will be seriously or fatally injured.

Motorists are frequently spotted parking in areas where it is unlawful, such as on double yellow lines and zigzags, and responsible families wanting this practice to stop have taken to posting photographs of offending vehicles on social media.

The problem also arises outside other Barry schools and Colcot Primary and Colcot PCSOs have successfully launched a Junior PSCO scheme where youngsters convey the safety message to those incorrectly parking.

One Romilly parent said: “My two youngest boys both go to Romilly and every day I see lots of examples of dangerous and unlawful parking. There have been incidents where kids have been put in dangerous situations crossing the road and one in particular when another mum had to bang on a car to stop them reversing into a child attempting to cross behind her. She was stopped on the zig zag.”

Police sergeant Nathan James said irresponsible parking outside of schools was an issue throughout the county.

He said: “Many parents and guardians who engage in irresponsible parking often cannot see the harm in parking up at hazardous locations for a couple of minutes but in reality, the potential consequences could end in a fatality. Parking restrictions in and around schools are there to safeguard children.

“Since April 1, 2013, the Vale of Glamorgan Council took responsibility for the enforcement of on-street and off-street parking regulations under a scheme called Civil Parking Enforcement (CPE). Whilst the local authority has primacy for parking enforcement, my team will work in conjunction and support wherever a particular problem is identified.”

A Vale Council spokesman said the authority endeavoured to patrol all schools in the Vale as regularly as possible to deter inappropriate parking.

He said: “Sadly despite this the occurrence of inappropriate and sometimes obstructive parking occurs all too often. Motorists who park irresponsibly and illegally outside schools not only cause potential congestion for others, but also increase the risk of collisions between a vehicle and pedestrians, in particular putting children and their parents are at risk.

“The council was previously made aware of irresponsible parking occurring outside Romilly Primary school in 2014. To deal with these issues the school was one of the first to be provided with green cones to place on road markings to further discourage parking. Special permission was obtained from Welsh Government to allow the school to place these cones on the road and to make any motorist who moved a cone liable to prosecution.

“No concerns have been raised with the council by parents, the police, or the school itself, since. However, if irresponsible parking has once again become an issue then we would urge anyone with concerns to contact us so that we can begin to once again work to address it.”