I WAS pleased to read the story in last week’s Midweek about how the county council is encouraging parents to park their cars and walk their children into school.

It’s great to know the council is setting up Park and Walk sites to make life less hectic and dangerous at the school gates.

There is only one problem – it won’t work.

It’s a great scheme, but the lazy masses who constitute the majority of school-run parents in Bucks won’t walk a single step more than they have to.

No, they will stick by their constitutional right to plonk their 4X4 on the double yellows directly outside the gates.

They will scream ‘human rights violation’ at anyone who politely asks them to move their vehicle because it’s a) blocking pedestrians on the pavement and b) is creating a serious danger to kids because it’s obscuring the traffic.

And they will bleat about injustice if they are ever fined by a parking warden.

They will tell you they have no other choice but to park this way because they have to get to work on time, or there is nowhere else for them to leave their car.

It’s generally all rubbish. I park and walk when I take my son to school, even if we are late.

A couple of times though, I have momentarily cheated for various reasons, i.e. by stopping for a second on a yellow line – and I would have no complaints if I was booked.

However, my crimes are nothing compared to those of the parents who dump their vehicle hanging off the kerb, leave their doors open stopping prams from getting by and cause general mayhem.

My message to county is therefore simple.

Don’t waste too much time setting up these park and walk sites; just invest any money you have in serious traffic enforcement outside every single school gate. How about CCTV cameras followed up by fines for those who violate the rules?

Extreme? Yes, of course it is. But if it saves a life of a child, then who cares?