Mum in blue badge row over taking her children to school

Chantelle Swain has been told she can no longer use the school car park when she drops off and collects her children.

The school has confirmed this and said it had no option. It has stopped all parking in the school due to concerns over the safety of pupils.

Mrs Swain, aged 29, who lives in Townville, was diagnosed with cancer in 2019 and had her leg amputated.

In October 2020 she was fitted with a prosthetic limb and was eventually able to start driving again although she could only walk a short distance.

She said: “I contacted school and said my husband was going back to work and the only way I could drop off and collect my children was if I could park as close to school as possible.”

Mrs Swain has a blue badge so the school said she could use the car park at the back of the school when taking Jayden, 11, and Ella-Rose, seven, to school and collecting them. The arrangement has worked successfully for around 12 months.

Then late one Sunday night she got a text saying that as from the following morning there was no one able to use the car park due to a near-miss incident.

She said: “I contacted school on Monday morning and expressed my concerns due to the distance I can walk.”

Mrs Swain spoke to the school’s business manager to try and reach a compromise She said: “I wasn’t happy with the outcome and asked to speak to the head and was promised a call which never came.”

“That afternoon, as agreed with school, I parked on Fryston Road and went up the slip road in front of the school gate. I had arranged to pick the children up 30 minutes early to avoid the traffic.

“The following afternoon I did the same and the school caretaker came over and started shouting at me, upsetting my daughter, saying I shouldn’t be parked there.

“When I got home I tried to contact the head teacher again but again she wasn’t available.”

The row came to a head last Thursday when Mrs Swain says she went to school to attend her son’s sports day and parked in the car park.

She said: “A member of staff came up and told me I couldn’t park there. I told her I wasn’t going to move so she went away and then came back with two other members of staff.

“One of them said, if you don’t move we are going to ring the police. At this, Ella-Rose began screaming saying, ‘mummy, move the car, the police are going to take you away’.

“They eventually went away and I calmed her down and got her to school 40 minutes late.

“I’m sure this could be dealt with better. I just want to be able to take my children to school and play a full-role in their school life but it is impossible for me at the moment.”

A spokesperson for the school said: The safeguarding of children and parents is our greatest responsibility.

The car park off Poplar Avenue is for staff and visitors, and was never intended for use by parents.

Permission for parents/carers to access the car park at drop off and pick up times was originally given to just one or two families at the discretion of the headteacher. However, over the years this has expanded to 25 blue badge holders.

In recent months there have been a number of near misses where parents/carers driving onto site at pick up/drop off time have nearly caused injury to a pedestrian. We have had to take the difficult decision to prevent access to the site for all parents and carers, including blue badge holders.

Where parents have contacted us to discuss their particular circumstances, we have worked with them to agree alternative arrangements that avoids them needing to drive onto the site.

We have been trying to work with Wakefield Council to improve the safety of the site for a number of years, and would whole-heartedly support any disabled parking bays that Wakefield Council wanted to provide on Poplar Avenue or Fryston Road.

In respect of Mrs Swain in particular, we do sympathise with her situation and the reason for her blue badge. However, we cannot make judgements about whether some badge holders have greater need than others – the decision has to apply to all blue badge holders to be fair to everyone.