Parking Buddies aim to improve road safety awareness at Fraserburgh school

Aberdeenshire Council has taken an innovative approach to improve road safety awareness at St Andrews School in Fraserburgh.

Eye-catching ‘Parking Buddies’ have been installed to remind parents and guardians to park safely around the school.

The aluminium cut-outs depict friendly school pupils holding lollipop signs sending a message to ‘think before you park’ and have been funded by Smarter Choices, Smarter Places.

Buddies discourage the people who park their cars from blocking crossings and mounting the pavement to park, which reduces safe access points to the school.

They also encourage reduced car use through the promotion of active travel means including walking, cycling and scooting to school, meaning pupils are getting more exercise.

This has the added benefit of reducing congestion and air pollution in the local vicinity around schools.

Ewan Wallace, Head of Environment and Sustainability at Aberdeenshire Council, said: “The safety of pupils is of paramount importance to us and we hope that these Parking Buddies – operating in conjunction with existing traffic safety measures outside schools and classroom-based safety awareness sessions - will help safeguard children in the future.”