Leeds councillor hits out at parents on the school run who drop children in dangerous places

Andrew Carter, the leader of the local authority’s opposition Conservative group, said kids’ lives were being put at risk by a “dereliction of duty” on the part of their mums and dads.

Councillor Carter, who represents the city’s Calverley and Farsley ward, said he’d repeatedly seen schoolchildren getting out of vehicles into a rush of oncoming traffic. The issue was raised at a meeting of councillors from the west of Leeds on Wednesday.

Green Party councillor for Farnley and Wortley, Ann Forsaith, had earlier suggested school drop-offs were an increasing problem.

Councillor Carter later added: “It astonishes me that parents would park, albeit momentarily, on junctions and let their kids get out of the car on the drivers’ side from the back, onto a road where some motorists could quite legitimately be turning left onto the road.

“I’ve seen it on numerous occasions and indeed one constituent sent me some frightening photographs of such an incident. It shouldn’t need action should it, because you’d think parents would think?”

He added: “In another ward, I watched a child nearly get knocked down, because a parent had let them get out of the car from a back seat onto a busy village street. The car in front of me braked, I braked and the kid was all right.

“But it just seems a dereliction of duty. It’s better to be late than dead on time, as the old advert said.”