COMMUNITY safety and transport leaders have backed a call for school run parents to leave home or work earlier to lessen the risk of accidents outside school gates.

Transport minister Robert Goodwill said parents were endangering pupils outside school gates as they were racing to get their children to school on time or to be there to collect them.

During a House of Commons debate about traffic controls outside schools, the MP for Scarborough and Whitby said the issue continued to be aggravated by the common practice of parking on pavements near schools, which caused problems for parents with children in pushchairs, people in wheelchairs, or the visually impaired and blind.

Mr Goodwill, whose brief includes road safety, said: ''I suspect in rural areas, such as the one that I represent, we have the additional problem that many parents seem to get in to bigger and bigger four-wheel drive vehicles, which makes it sometimes harder for them to see when they manoeuvre.

''I don't know whether it's a fact of modern life, but a lot of people seem to set off far too late to take their children to school so therefore they're racing there.''

North Yorkshire County Council's executive member for transport, Councillor Gareth Dadd, said while it needed to be recognised that parents had busy lives, driving and in particular parking remained an issue outside many schools in the county.

He said cars were often forced to slow outside schools due to the number of parked vehicles.

Cllr Dadd said: "Mr Goodwill's comments come as a timely reminder that traffic regulations are there to be obeyed."

A multi-pronged approach in Darlington, including encouraging children to walk to school, has led to some improvements, according to Darlington Borough Council cabinet member for transport, Councillor David Lyonette.

He said the worst safety issues came at the end of the school day.

Cllr Lyonette said: "While children really enjoy walking to school the trouble is the parents don't want to walk very far and they are parking almost on top of one another."

Other councillors said they had seen parents whose houses back on to schools loading children into 4X4 cars before driving a hundred yards.

Councillor Lucy Stovvels, Durham County Council's community safety leader, said educating parents and changing attitudes were key to eliminating risks.

She said: "It is not just about leaving early.

"Society is changing very fast, but we would hope that schools encourage walking to school.

"One fatality is one too many."