A BAN on vehicles outside schools could be introduced if a pilot scheme by Fife Council proves to be successful.

Denend Primary School in Cardenden has been chosen for the trial after parents campaigned for traffic to be banned outside the school, and the other two will be chosen by transportation and education officers as soon as possible.

They'll set up a 'traffic exclusion zone' at drop-off and pick-up times at three locations with the aim of keeping children safe, cutting car journeys and encouraging pupils to walk, scoot or cycle to class.

And if the trial works the local authority are likely to follow Edinburgh's lead and roll it out to more schools in the Kingdom.

Council co-leader, Councillor David Alexander, said: “By restricting traffic in streets outside our schools, at particular times of the day, we hope parents will decide to leave the car at home when taking their children to school.

"In turn we hope less traffic will also encourage more children to get to school under their own stream.

“Other councils have already carried out successful pilots and Edinburgh City Council went on to create permanent school zones.

"They felt that the pilots had been a success and were of benefit to school communities."

The decision was made by the policy and co-ordination committee last week and the 'School Streets' trial will prevent traffic using a certain street or streets by a school, at set periods of the day – typically during start and finish times.

Access would still be available for residents, who would be issued with permits.

The pilot will be carried out at three schools, one of them being Denend PS, and the other two will be chosen by transportation and education officers as soon as possible.

A number of factors will be looked at when considering which schools should be included in the trial.

They include: the current volume of school drop-off traffic and how much congestion there is; level of support for the trial from the school, parents, pupils and local residents; road safety implications; overall effect on traffic in the area; current levels of walking and cycling by pupils; and the proximity of bus routes and number of houses served by particular streets.

Council co-leader, Cllr David Ross, said: "We want to keep our children safe around schools and to encourage them to get active and walk, scoot or cycle to school if they can.

"This is not only better for their health but also better for the environment.

"For this to happen, parents need to be able to feel comfortable that it is safe to let their child travel to school in this way.

"That means dramatically reducing the traffic outside our schools and creating a safe area for children to arrive at."

The Times has recently told you about the traffic issues outside Denend PS.

Parents and carers lodged a petition after witnessing several close calls with cars narrowly avoiding hitting children outside the school.

There have also been reports of staff members being sworn at and abused by motorists after trying to control traffic.

There have been a number of minor collisions between vehicles outside the school and parents have feared that it is only a matter of time before someone is injured.

A petition calling for an exclusion zone outside the school was organised by Denend Primary Parent Council and was presented to Cowdenbeath area committee last month.

Linda Erskine, Cardenden Labour councillor, had said: “It’s a huge issue.

“We should not be waiting for an accident to happen before putting up our hands and saying we should have done something.”

Ms Erskine said the problem has been getting worse for a number of years.

She said: “We’ve had all sorts of visits by the police and while the police are there everything is fine.

“But we’ve had really angry exchanges with parents and we’ve had bumps between cars.

“There haven’t been any children hurt, thankfully. We’ve had children who have been pulled out of the way.”