WE SHOULD say from the outset that there are certainly some parents with a genuine need to park near schools to drop off their children.

Those children who have mobility problems definitely need to be taken close to the school gates.

Now, having said that, careless parking is a problem that blights almost all of our schools.

Parents who pull their cars up on kerbs, who ignore parking restrictions, and who double or even treble-park in the roads outside various schools are responsible for frightening road safety problems. There isn't a school in South Devon that hasn't had a near miss or even a minor accident as a result of parents' careless parking as they try to deliver their children to a point as close to the school doors as they possibly can.

That there hasn't been a more serious accident is more a matter of luck than judgement.

In one instance, at one of the many schools trying to tackle this problem, the solution has been to paint double yellow lines on the road and force the parents to park further away.

Parents are angry. Some of them are very angry.

But if yellow lines aren't the answer, what is? Something has to be done to stop the streets outside our schools becoming car-clogged obstacle courses, and if the minority of careless parents won't regulate themselves, then regulations will inevitably follow.

THE unpopular NCP parking contract in Torbay is due to finish at the end of this month, and it won't be missed.

Torbay Council will take back parking enforcement controls, with the promise of common sense and wardens who will be ambassadors for the bay. Few people will mourn the passing of the NCP contract. The company says its work over the past five years has led to less congestion and greater road safety.

However, it has also led to a degree of bad feeling rarely, if ever, seen before on the streets of Torbay. A blood donor vehicle was booked, church-goers have been booked, people attending funerals have been penalised.

What we must see now is a demonstrable change in attitudes. Punish those who break the rules by all means, but cut the rest a little slack for once.