Friday February 5th 2016
Phil Bowen, editor
The Police and the Midlothian traffic warden were out in a high visibility swoop today to catch parents who are consistently parking illegally outside King’s Park Primary school in Dalkeith.
A small minority of King’s Park parents continue to disregard instructions to park in the designated safe places away from the entrance of the school.
Since opening in Dalkeith, Morrisons have welcomed parents using their car park as a safe place to park and then safely walk the short distance to the school. Alternative safe parking is also available in Park Road so there really is no excuse for parents to park dangerously close to the school.
Speaking to Midlothian View today, King’s Park headteacher Ms Arlene Limerick said “I fear that there could be a fatality.”
Last year the school, the police and the council met together to discuss the ongoing parking issues at King’s Park. They decided to close the school gate at Parkside Place so that the scarce traffic warden resource in Midlothain could concentrate on Croft Street. Unfortunately that does not seem to have deterred the irresponsible parents and has in fact simply inconvenienced the law abiding parents who had parked in Morrisons and used the Parkside Place entrance. The decision to close the Parkside Place entrance is to be reviewed shortly.
This small number of parents continue to put other parents’ children at risk whilst they choose to park so selfishly close to the school. It is not even that these parents have the excuse that they are running late. Often they are seen parked outside the school well before the bell goes in their favoured parking position, so they are repeat almost daily offenders.
As well as causing a dangerous obstruction these parents are also sitting in their cars with their engines running and sending exhaust fumes into the playground and onto the children playing closeby.
So today the majority of parents at the school were very pleased to see the Police take action and give parking tickets to these parents.
Selfish and dangerous parking is recognised as a problem at other Midlothian primary schools and the Police are looking to take action soon. So the message to parents in Midlothian is to park in the designated safe areas and stop putting children’s lives in danger otherwise the Police will act.
King’s Park primary headteacher Ms Arlene Limerick with the Police and the Traffic Warden.
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