Noss Primary School's plea to parents and carers over misuse of disabled parking bays
Pupils, staff and members of Noss Primary School's parent council ask that parents and carers take care to observe its parking regulations.
The plea comes after several vehicles were seen using the school's disabled parking bays that are needed for those who have disability issues and are picking up or dropping off children.
Headteacher, Fraser Thomson, said: "We have a state of the art facility here at Noss Primary School and ELC [Early Learning Centre].
"We also have a unit for pupils with social and communication needs and we have designated blue bay areas at the front of our school for users who have accessibility requirements and families in possession of a blue badge."
On Wednesday afternoon, Mr Thomson invited the paper to meet him along with a parent council representative and children from the pupil council. "We're gathered here today because we're looking to create awareness to other users of our car park facility, and our drop-off bay, that these areas are for families and people in possession of a blue badge," he said.
"We have a huge car park area and a well-resourced drop-off bay that extends around a loop of around 150 metres. We're looking to point other users in the direction of these areas at drop-off and collection times."
Mr Thomson started his position as headteacher on November 8 last year and in the short time since he took up the role he became aware that some drivers without blue badges were using the blue badge bays.
He added that the school's janitor, Michael Adamson, has been instrumental in helping monitor and police the blue badge bays to help raise awareness of the issue. "We've been dealing with it in a constructive and civil manner and everybody has been very supportive with what we're trying to do here."
One of the issues appears to stem from the bays being positioned directly in the front of the school and unentitled drivers accessing them due to their convenience. Though the bays have markings to show they are for blue badge holders some of the wheelchair symbols on the ground have become worn away and hard to see. Mr Thomson said that the school would consider repainting these to make it more obvious.
Anne-Marie Coghill, chairperson of the school's parent council called Noss Primary Community, said: "It's been an ongoing issue since I've been here over the last five years.
"Mr Thomson has been trying to address the situation. During Covid there weren't any cars here at all and then, coming back, there were different rules. The rules never went back to the way they should have been.
"I've received complaints in emails, phone calls and in person. I have my children, Fearne and Magnus, here as well so other parents will come along and speak to me.
"The complaints are particularly coming from users of the bays who can't get in there due to other cars being parked in them already. We want to be constructive and not draconian about it."
The six bays are enough for the additional support needs of the school said Mr Thomson and on Wednesday afternoon pupils from Noss Primary's pupil council came along to support the issue. A boy named Cruz said: "I feel that people can't see it and get confused but they should know it's a disabled spot. It's annoying – when disabled people try to park it's filled up with people who are not disabled and they'll have to park somewhere else and walk over here."
Another pupil council member called Jolee said: "If someone can't park there and they have something wrong with their leg it would be really hard for them to walk all that way."