Medway man fined for flouting term time rule during school holidays

KentOnline / KMTV

Glencoe Road in Chatham is part of a School Streets scheme, where vehicles are not allowed to go during certain hours during term time. Drivers who flout the rules are fined.  Local Democracy Reporter Gabriel Morris reports.

Transcript

00:00It's the scheme designed to get children to school more safely by closing roads

00:05but some drivers say school streets in Medway are testing their patience. Take a

00:12turn into the enforcement area at the wrong time and you'll be given a fine of

00:16up to £70. Now every school street in Medway has different restricted hours

00:23however during the school holidays well there is no enforcement in place so in

00:28theory if I was to drive down this road during the restricted hours I shouldn't

00:32receive a fine. It's emerged that's not quite the case. Gary drove down Glencoe

00:39Road when the children were off for the half term. A few days later he received

00:44this fine. He presumed it was a mistake but council officers told him there was

00:50a teacher training day at Phoenix Junior Academy that means the enforcement came

00:55back in even though it was during the school holidays. Really angry to be

01:00honest frustrated as well because the council should really take into

01:06account that the information isn't there and the whole idea was to protect

01:10children and obviously no children there so there was no need for them to issue

01:14the ticket. Do you think most people living around here would actually know

01:17when it's a teacher training day? No they're not going to know when the teacher

01:20training day of course not unless you happen to be one of the children

01:25parents and that was sent directly to them but when you check the website it's

01:30not on there. The restrictions are currently around seven Medway schools

01:34but there are plans to continue rolling out more in the next academic year. Well

01:39for me personally they need a refund of the money I've paid it up

01:43front because I didn't want to get the fine to be doubled or go to the county

01:48court or make the signage better on the entrance to the roads you know so

01:53explain it is for schools or make sure that the schools have got the information

01:57on the website for people to see. The council says keeping school children

02:01safe is their priority and they say they won't be excluding the enforcement

02:06anytime soon but for Gary he hopes this will teach the authority a lesson in

02:11fairness. Gabriel Morris in Chatham

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