Children are promoting road safety and tackling parking problems outside their schools by issuing their own parking tickets.

Inconsiderate parkers have led to fears for child safety at Riverview Infants and Junior Schools in Cimba Wood, Gravesend.

It’s an ongoing problem – things got so bad last September that concerned parents protested outside the school gates for several weeks.

They dressed in high-vis jackets and stood on the yellow lines on roads around the schools highlighting the problems caused by illegal parking and inconsiderate driving.

Infant head teacher Nicole Caulfield said: "We are really excited to be part of a Road Safety Awareness initiative that involves children, staff and parents playing an active part in reducing the amount of traffic on the roads around the school."

The project has seen children take part in a number of initiatives promoting road safety and highlighting concerns about parking appropriately at drop-off and pick-up times.

Junior head teacher Rosemary Dymond said: "As part of the work, pupils are issuing parking tickets they have designed to help get the message across.

"We want children to be able to walk into school safely. The school council has produced a circular map of 10-minute distance walks around the school so that parents who insist on using their cars have other venues to park at, further away from the school entrance, to enable their children some daily exercise."

As well as parking tickets and the maps, children have written their own newsletter, designed posters and made a short film.

Next month, groups of children will compete in a Dragons’ Den-style scheme to work out other ways to stop inconsiderate parking.

The scheme has been backed by KCC’s transport boss Bryan Sweetland.

A motion proposed by Cllr Sweetland at a meeting of KCC unanimously voted in favour of allowing KCC councillors to fund 20mph schemes outside schools.

He said: "This will allow local members of the council to address particular needs. Of course, we have to bear in mind that not all residential roads in Kent are suitable for this treatment and adopt a sensible approach to this."