Youngsters at a Hangleton infant school have taken it upon themselves to try and solve the thorny problem of parents parking.

The six and seven-year-olds at Hangleton Community Infant School have come up with their own letter to send to parents, teachers and nearby residents.

In it they say they “don't like people being unhappy” adding they want the adults to “smile” when driving to and from school.

The hand-written letter, addressed from Alice, Joel, Lilith, Joseph N, Ivy, Lilia, Phillip, Mia, Oliver, Keira, Oscar, Liam, reads: “We found that lots of people get cross about where people park their cars when it's time to bring children to collect them.

“We don't like people being unhappy so we want to make all our friends and neighbours smile by helping people to make good choices when driving to and from school.”

Parking has long been a problem around the school with parents leaving cars across drives, on grass verges and blocking the road.

More than 400 of the letters were printed and delivered to the surrounding streets including Summerdale Road, Poplar Avenue, Northease Drive and Dale View.

The letters reads: “These are some of the ways you could help us: If you live close to school maybe you could walk. It's really good for you.

“If you need to come by car then please don't park across driveways. People need to be able to leave their houses and they can't get out.

“If you can leave your house/work with plenty of time to find a proper parking space, please try to park in the road so that pavements are safe to walk on and grass verges stay looking tidy.

“Thank you for reading our letter we wish you happy school runs.”

Speaking to The Argus, Lilth, six, said: “There used to be lots of adults getting angry so we decided to do the letter.”

Joel, seven, added: “We came up with two sentences each and then showed it to our teacher.”

Mia, six, said that they received letters from neighbours praising both their action and also their handwriting.

Oliver, six, added: “We hope the message gets out to lots of people so they stop parking in people's driveways. I think it is a good idea and something other schools should try.”

Melanie Collins, senior teaching assistant at the school, said she was “very proud” of the youngsters.

She said: “The parking has been an issue for a while and they wanted to do something about it.

“They came up with the letter over a number of weeks and the local community has taken it on board.”