Pupils issue tickets to unsafe parkers '“ including a teacher

But when you’re being ticketed by a 10-year-old, it can be quite embarrassing.

That’s the aim of pupils from Gomer Junior School in Gosport, who have been issuing tickets to people parking in unsafe or illegal places.

The Junior Road Safety scheme aims to get drivers, from parents to visitors, to reconsider where they are parking and perhaps even ditch the car altogether.

Year 5 and 6 pupils have been going out before and after school each day – and they say it has been a very effective scheme.

Katelyn Delaney, aged nine, said: ‘We patrol the school gates to see if people are parking on the zig-zags, double yellow lines or in other places they shouldn’t be.

‘People sometimes get embarrassed when we give them a ticket, but that is what we want to be.

‘We’ve even caught a teacher parking in a bad place.’

Issabelle Lethbridge, aged 10, said: ‘We have already seen a difference because people are starting to park further away from the school.

‘It is about getting people to be safer when they park their cars, but also to make them think about walking to school instead.

‘Some parents have been telling us what an impact it has had when they pick up their children from school.’

Evie Mulhall, also aged 10, said: ‘There was one lady who kept on reversing as we walked towards her to give her a ticket. It is important that when we speak to them we do it politely – because we want to make a difference in our community.’

Headteacher at Gomer Junior School Georgina Mulhall said that the scheme would certainly be continuing.

She said: ‘The scheme has been an enormous success – and I am so proud of the pupils on the Junior Road Safety team for how they have handled speaking to parents and other adults who have been parking in places they shouldn’t be.

‘We want to encourage parents to walk their children to school – which is why we are not only doing this, but have set up a ‘park and stride’ at The Seahorse in Broadlands Drive.

‘Getting children to name and shame the parents has been really powerful, and we have had positive feedback from them about it.

‘We’re going to be keeping this up in the future, but doing it on surprise days, so that people don’t slacken off on safe parking.’