PARENTS on the school run are escaping penalty tickets by pulling up on a nearby park.

The revelation came to light on the second day of a council crackdown, launched last month with threats of £70 fines for anyone responsible of “illegal, inconsiderate and unsafe parking and poor driver behaviour”.

Brighton and Hove City Council sent parking wardens to Westdene Primary School to enforce safe parking at the end-of-day pick-up yesterday.

But cars left on the park were not given tickets and a council employee admitted to The Argus that no fines have been issued since the crackdown launched.

The council said that the crackdown is “not about fines” and that “the solution is cooperation and collaboration between the schools and parents”.

Several cars were seen parking on the green next to Bankside in Westdene yesterday, which officers said was not an offence.

Dave Gold, 62, who lives in Bankside, said: “We would like to see a positive traffic plan put in place but everyone is just playing with the idea.”

Jacek Kacprzak, 38, who has two children at the school, said: “I can understand people needing to drive, but it’s a matter of balance.”

Sam Nash, 39, of Barn Rise, who has a daughter at the school, said: “It’s a nightmare, you only need to look around the green.

“There is never anyone to enforce safety down here.”

Speaking about bad parking in the area Martin Heath, head of road safety for the council, said: “The people who continue to do this, do so in the knowledge of this crackdown, so it’s a deliberate act.

“In every school there is a small minority that causes the problem.”

Owen McElroy, the council’s transport programme manager, said the park differs from a grass verge that is part of the highway, for which drivers can be given a ticket if they are causing an obstruction.

He said: “It’s an issue and I’m sure the council will be investigating it.”

The school wrote to parents telling them parking officers would be visiting for the end-of-day pick-up.

Some people claimed that informing parents prior to the crackdown simply dispersed some drivers and they felt that parking attendants should have used an element of surprise instead.

The parking warden who was assaulted in Tuesday’s crackdown at Rudyard Kipling Primary School in Woodingdean was not put off from turning up to work again yesterday.

He was pushed to the ground after asking a driver to move his illegally-parked vehicle.

The warden, named only as Joe, told The Argus yesterday: “You expect a bit of verbal abuse when you put the uniform on, but not that.”