Council Backing For School Cameras on Yorkshire Coast

East Riding councillors have backed calls for cameras to be used to issue fines to parents who drive up to school gates.

Councillors unanimously backed a motion brought to the council by the Labour Party’s Cllr David Nolan. Cllr Nolan, who represents the Hessle ward in the council, presented the motion at June’s full council meeting which asked the council’s cabinet to investigate installing automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras outside school gates, to automatically fine parents who drive up to the gates to drop off and collect their children.

Cllr Nolan explained that despite efforts from the council in recent years to tackle parents’ poor parking through the likes of signage, walking busses, and letters to parents “unfortunately there is still a minority who will insist on driving as close as possible to the school gates:

" It's not unique to East Riding. It's a problem elsewhere. Now over the years we have as a council tried to bring in signage, roads, posts, 20 mile an hours, lollipops crossings, letters to parents, walking, buses. Lots of things have been tried and unfortunately there is still a minority who will insist on driving as close as possible to the school gates.

"I regard that as antisocial behaviour and selfish. And they do it because they think they can get away with it. And that's not a good reason to be doing that because they are putting other people's children at risk by what they're doing. There's also the issue about it does inconvenience nearby residents, in terms of people parking across their driveways and things."

His Labour Party colleague Kevin Casson is one of those in agreement:

 "Technically this is antisocial behaviour twice a day at our local schools. We have two schools in Cottingham, which we have some real problems with parents, due to either lateness or for their own reasons, blocking driveways or residents, in some, park on double yellow lines and park on corners. The double parking, we call blocking parking, on most of the double yellows on the local roads.

"This disregard is causing arguments and frustration in these communities. Traffic enforcement is overstretched and the police will only attend if problems get physical."

The notion notes that such cameras are already used at twelve schools in North East Lincolnshire, as Cllr Nolan confirms:

" They started with two schools in 2022. They rolled it out due to the success. They actually put in mobile cameras so that they could move them on once compliance happened, but actually they found people weren't complying, so they gradually then extended that to other schools, but kept the cameras. The ones that were where they were placed, they've drawn in 90 odd thousand pounds in fines.

"They estimate that it will pay back in three years towards the cost of the cameras because of the fines raised. I did ask about whether the fines drop off and they said no. They've actually still got schools that have had for three years where parents are still sadly being fined and the level of fines is enormous."

"They were staggered by the amount of people not complying with the no stopping restrictions, despite the fact there's cameras up."

Councillor Nolan added there have been problems in Bridlington he's witnessed personally and that the trial in Lincolnshire has been successful:

" They now have 12 schools using ANPR and report that the revenue raised from fines is paying back the cost of the cameras cabinet, and this is a crucial bit, cabinet is asked to examine whether ANPR cameras should be used at our worst affected schools. I've always felt there's a concern, I have concern about what goes on outside school gates in terms of road safety.

"I was in Bridlington some time ago and a taxi pulled up outside the school gates. Sat there on the sort of no stopping area and there's a passenger in the back waiting for their children to come out of the school. And so the gates open. All the kids were coming out of the school, walking around. This taxi sat there waiting and I thought, that's an abuse.

"That should not happen."

The motion calls upon the council’s cabinet to examine whether ANPR cameras should be used at the worst affected schools in the East Riding.

Cllr Nolan called for trials of the technology to happen next year:

 "There are options, and I know this is always about finance, because I'm sure all members here support the principle of what we're talking about. It's going be how we're going to pay for it now. It's not going to happen this year. But I would look, for example, for it to possibly be included in next year's capital budget or from the local transport funding that we get from government as a means of seeing whether we can run a trial in a couple of places."

Certainly our current trial needs that extra enforcement at the school gates.

Cllr Victoria Aitken, the council’s cabinet member for children, families and education said:

“The safety of children outside our school gates is a shared concern and a long standing challenge.”

Despite Cllr Aitken pointing out the “ongoing efforts already being made by our schools,” she stated:

" I personally stood outside a local primary school with one of our MPs, speaking directly with parents to encourage safer behaviour. But as many of us know, old habits often die hard and poor practices often reappear quickly. So I will support any initiative that helps address this issue, whether that's ANPR, better crossings or community engagement.

"But I must stress that any potential proposal must come with funding for our schools. They are already stretched and simply do not have the spare resources to support or subsidise additional safety projects, no matter how worthwhile."

As the motion was passed, the council’s cabinet will now look into ways to use or trial ANPR cameras around schools.