Madam,

I am wondering if you can help me bring attention and publicity to my campaign. Parking is an issue everywhere we go these days but nowhere more so than our children’s schools. However, this is where we must be most cautious and safe.I live in Aberystwyth and my children attend a local school. I have watched as people park more and more dangerously with no regard for others’ safety including the children.

Parking at my children’s school has gotten so bad recently, cars are double parking around the island on double yellow lines, at times even parking on the island itself, blocking other drivers in and some just simply dumping their cars where they stand. I realise that parking is an issue for most schools but the parents really have no excuses. Literally next to the school there is a footbridge from a council car park with ample parking spaces. The council has provided “grace time” before school starts and after it finishes so you can park free of charge, but for some this is not enough.

They use the excuse that they don’t have time to park and walk over the bridge. In reality this is a poor excuse. As a disabled parent there are times I need to use the disabled bay but I only use it when I have too, other times I will park over the bridge even though this will have a detrimental ef-fect on my health physically for the rest of the day. I do this to set an example for my children, to help ease traffic and to allow someone who needs the valuable disabled space more than myself that day. Unfortunately other parents see it as an extra place to park to take their children into school because “they are in a rush”.There have been many discussions amongst the parents that things need to change, but no-one has been willing to stick their neck out to try and get something done.Parking tickets are no longer issued by the police, but the council’s parking enforcement department says it often only has one officer to cover the area. We need the rights to be given back to the police to pick up the slack, so to speak. We need to try and find solutions.

I have started a petition to get as many names as possible to take to the council. However, names very rarely achieve things these days and we are often faced with the need for evidence, so I have set up a Facebook group “shame illegal parking in Aberystwyth”. People can upload pictures showing times and dates of the irresponsible and dangerous parking around our schools.I have spoken to the police about this and they have agreed that it’s a good way of collecting evidence from a large area group. However we still want and need signatures. There is a link to the petition on the Facebook page.

My message to these par-ents is, if you don’t want your car’s picture on the page don’t park illegally, park safely and responsibly. For me the safety of our children should always be paramount.

Yours etc

Kelly Cable

Min y Ddôl

Penparcau

Aberystwyth.