AN ISLEWORTH head teacher has hatched a plan to defuse local tensions caused by the school run.
Eileen Sheedy of Isleworth Town School, in Twickenham Road, heard accounts of parents and residents verbally abusing each other, triggered by 'school run' parking across driveways.
To combat this she has launched a scheme where the school loaned pupils bikes and scooters would encourage parents to leave their cars at home instead.
Mrs Sheedy said: "We are trying to curtail the situation as best as we can, and we do try and reach parents and try to work with school community and with residents. It is only a small number of parents behaving in this way.
"However, the police and safer neighbourhood team [who looked into the problem] were shocked at the little regard parents have for both our neighbours and their own children."
Mrs Sheedy said: "We were aware that a number of parents were driving a short distance to bring their children to school, so we started the cycle and scooter hire scheme to encourage them to them to cycle or scooter to school instead. Since the scheme began the number of cars driving to school have decreased."
And the scheme has had so much success that the pupils are now in the running for a London Cycling Awards for Best Project for Children or Young people. The winners will be announced later on in the year.
