The menace of pavement parking: Yorkshire Council’s campaign for safer and healthier school runs

Parking on pavements has been reported as a particular issue around schools in Calderdale.

Calderdale Council said pedestrians are put at risk when people park their vehicles on pavements, in particular vulnerable road users, such as those with impaired vision or mobility, pushchairs and older people.

Sarah Hemingway, Headteacher at Copley Primary School, Copley, said: "We’re quite a large school and we’re on a main road, so with all the parking in the morning and evening, we do have a problem with people parking on the pavement, blocking businesses, blocking homes, so we do get a lot of parental complaints about that."

She said parents with children in pushchairs, people in wheelchairs and pupils in adaptive buggies were at particular risk.

"They have to go out into the road and this road is really busy. There’s lots of trucks and tractors going past, so it can be quite a scary experience for parents if they can’t get through."

Sharon Harwood, Headteacher at New Road, has experienced similar issues around her school. She said: "Parents in a rush to come and get the children will often find a quick spot to park the car and more often than not, it’s on the pavement because there’s not a huge amount of space outside."

"There are times where our year six children are walking independently now and when cars are parked on the pavement, those obstructions are meaning that those children are having to go onto the road.

"There's also an elderly community, so again some of the older members of the neighbourhood are having to go on the road, so we’ve been doing quite a lot to try to get our families and children walking to school."

Calderdale Council has committed to design and plan healthier environments to improve the social, economic and environmental health of Calderdale. Part of those improvements will be altering the areas around schools to make them safer and promoting walking, cycling and wheeling to school.

Pavements are for People

The council ran a survey in September 2024 to gather parents’ and carers’ views on pavement parking around schools in the district.

From 935 responses, 64 per cent said it was a problem at their child's school. Over half said they travel to school by car.

“This really highlighted the local issue,” a spokesperson for Calderdale Council said. “In December 2024, we launched our ‘Pavements are for People’ campaign. This is a road safety behaviour change campaign funded by West Yorkshire Combined Authority and Active Travel England.”

Rob Walker of byUMBERTO, a traditional and contemporary signwriter, was commissioned to deliver art workshops in local schools in December. These were hosted at Old Earth Primary, Elland; New Road Primary, Sowerby Bridge, and Copley Primary.

Sharon said: ‘The idea is to try and make some posters that we can put around the school, around the fencing, just so that parents might stop and think, ‘actually it is a primary school, it could cause an accident. The children's voice might have more impact than my voice."

Rob will be using the children’s illustrations to create a final artwork piece which will be painted as a wall mural in Copley Primary’s school playground.

Sarah said: "When the Pavements are for People campaign came along, we jumped at the chance to get involved really - anything that we can do to raise awareness of dangerous parking around school and to help our community to make better choices when they’re parking.”

A Pavements jingle was also recorded with the Choir at Luddendenfoot Academy in December, which will be shared across Calderdale Council’s social media channels.

Find out more about the campaign on the website here