PARENTS and buses have been criticised for blocking residential roads around schools and not letting pupils walk ‘half a mile’.

Streets around schools in Ulverston, Coniston, Broughton and Kirkby are under pressure, South Lakeland Local Committee was told on Monday.

Cllr Mark Wilson said buses parked up on Springfield Road in Ulverston long after dropping off pupils and were parking up long before home time.

The street is home to Ulverston Victoria High, Sandside Lodge School and St Mary’s Catholic Primary, he said.

Cllr Wilson said: “I don’t what’s up with parents these days but they are there waiting for their children in their ‘tractors’ all the time from 2pm onwards. There’s no need for it.”

Cllr Wilson, the Labour member for Ulverston East, appealed for buses dropping off ‘hundreds’ of pupils to consider parking in a car park and let children ‘walk the last half mile.

“They don’t need to gum up a whole street,” he said.

Schools also needed to properly ‘engage’ with travel plans rather than ‘bleating’ at the county council about traffic problems, he added.

The meeting heard that if children were allowed to walk it could help combat congestion, parking, climate change and childhood obesity.

Cllr Matt Brereton said more safe parking and drop-off areas are needed.

Cllr Brereton, the Conservative councillor for High Furness, said: “Some of our parents seem to assume the double yellow lines are where you can drop your kids off when actually it’s quite the opposite. There’s room for parents to park half-a-mile away – it’s not a million miles away. Even if the kids get half-a-mile each day, it gets them into the idea of it.”

Cllr Brereton said parts of Coniston were almost a ‘no-go zone’ with parents feeling unsafe due to parked-up cars and speeding traffic.

Cllr Roger Bingham said some parents were not prepared to walk half-a-mile. “They drive that distance from a house in all the villages I seem to serve,” said Cllr Bingham, the Conservative councillor for Burton and Crooklands.

The committee agreed to allocate £20,000 to help those schools which identify issues in their travel plans.