While it would be easy to condemn parents for parking near schools and encourage children to walk more, there are two sides to every story.

For starters, working parents are often in a rush to drop off because of the modern-day demands of the workplace. Many are juggling jobs that three or four people would have done a few decades back.

Parents are also under pressure to navigate heavy rush hour traffic to get across town and into work on time with little empathy from employers. Also, isn’t it county councils that have slowly eroded the amount of free spaces on streets which allowed parents to park near schools?

As car use has grown, councils have cut the spaces available with double yellow lines, residents only zones and various restrictions.

Little wonder parents are getting there too early - it could be the only way to guarantee an available parking spot.

Given the multitude of risks we are told our children now face, is it so bad that parents want to ensure they have seen them safely to the schoolgates?

Let’s not kid ourselves that in this day and age children can safely walk miles. That being said, if pupils are going to be tacitly permitted to take Fridays off to beat the climate drum, surely the best measure of their willingness to save the planet would be to oblige those involved to walk to school every day!