Traffic wardens who are abused by parents illegally parking outside schools are teaming up with PCSOs.

Almost every school in the borough is surrounded by yellow lines and signposted zones in which motorists cannot park, but traffic wardens continue to face resistance from parents determined to use their cars to pick up their children.

Speaking recently while on duty outside Istead Rise Primary School, traffic warden Michael Edwards said the resistance often comes in the form of abuse.

“This is a long road and it is a problem school for us,” he said.

“Currently we are with the police community support officers and we pair up because the parents here can be a bit abusive.”

A council spokesman defended the role of wardens and insisted that the council was more interested in ensuring children’s safety than collecting fines.

“The real issue is the safety of children outside schools,” he said.

“At Istead Rise there were a number of parents in cars collecting children from school and they wanted to park in restricted areas.

“They were saying they would come back the next day when we were not there, but we do have parents urging us every day to come and police the parking outside schools.”

Gravesham council issues 6,600 tickets a year to motorists parking in restricted areas, with many of them given outside schools.

The spokesman said it was “by far and away the biggest single issue that traffic wardens face”.

“I think the problem is that many motorists believe that the traffic rules should be upheld, but not the ones that they happen to break,” he said.

“If it were not for the traffic wardens keeping the roads and children safe it would be chaos.”

Istead Rise head teacher Kevin Holmes said: “I think for all schools, because of where they are built in areas of high density housing, traffic is always going to be problematic.

“More children now travel much further to come to Istead Rise, so for some parents travelling by car is absolutely essential.

“The bus service that runs to Istead Rise does not run at times that are convenient for children coming to and from school.

Over half of our children come from outside the area and there is an awful lot of traffic and limited parking, so a lot of the side roads get used.

Most parents do the sensible thing, which is park some way away and walk the last quarter of a mile or so.

There is always going to be an inconsiderate few and they seem to get the attention.

“We have been working closely with PCSOs and the local council to ensure that parents are parking in a way that doesn’t put children and others at risk.”