A NEWPORT councillor is urging parents to drive responsibly when taking their children to and from school or risk seriously injuring their child or another.

Lliswerry councillor Allan Morris requested in April that Newport city council look at ways to stop parents parking in dangerous places outside school gates following concerns that some mums and dads were ignoring restrictions for the sake of convenience.

In two reports released this week, Newport city council promised to keep monitoring the way traffic is controlled at school gates, but Cllr Morris stressed it was largely up to parents to obey the rules or risk the lives of young children.

“It is only a matter of time before a child gets seriously injured due to the laziness of the parents,” said Cllr Morris. “The ball is squarely in their court as to whether they put their children at risk.”

The council is planning to send questionnaires to head teachers, governors and neighbourhood policing teams to ask how effective current restrictions are in keeping parents' vehicles away from the school entrance, and to visit schools where there is still a problem.

Gwent Police will also be consulted about enforcing 20 mph zones outside all schools, as well as “no stopping orders” at crossings and keep clear zones.

But while Councillor Morris said he was pleased the authority was now “taking the problem seriously”, parents needed to be more aware of how dangerous it was to ignore parking regulations.

He added the most effective way to do this was by getting children to educate their parents on the lives that could potentially be lost.

Figures from the Assembly show the number of serious and fatal casualties on roads in Newport have been reduced by 59 per cent between 1994 and 2008 due to traffic calming measures.