Buddy the Bear is helping children in Broadclyst to “Travel safely every day”

Our Civil Parking Enforcement Team has been working closely with Broadclyst Parish Council on a new road safety campaign.

The campaign, featuring Buddy the Bear, launched in January, with Buddy meeting crowds of excited children to hand out badges and talk to their parents about the campaign aims.

Buddy’s main message to children is to “Travel safely every day” and to encourage them to be especially careful on some of the busier roads nearby.

Civil Parking Enforcement Officers are also listening to parents’ concerns and working with local people to see if there are ways the area could be made safer.

The next stage of campaign will see a leaflet for parents and children and a map of the school area highlighting places where children and motorists need to take particular care. These will be shared with parents at upcoming after school “Meet and Greet” sessions.

The parish council is creating a working party of local stakeholders to discuss ways of building a strong safety culture in and around Town Hill which is the only pedestrian access to the primary school.

Councillor Liz Straw from Broadclyst Parish Council said:

“Every week we’re photographing cars parked inappropriately and sending them to Devon County Council’s excellent Report It app. This results in civil enforcement officers having to respond and attend and I’m very pleased with their excellent response. This has been a really productive piece of partnership work and shows what we can do when we work together.

“We’re very grateful to Devon County Council and their Civil Parking Enforcement Team for the support we are receiving. A very clear message is being repeatedly sent to drivers and we must keep this up.”

Lisa Beaumont-Barns, our Civil Parking Enforcement Operations Manager said:

“With over 2,000 member of the public enquiries a month, civil parking enforcement try to answer any requests for enforcement in just 7 days.

“Our main focus of many of these requests is road safety for schools and we are happy to be partnering with a local community to try and highlight the importance of this matter. We hope that if this campaign helps the Broadclyst community it may be adopted by other communities to make the roads safer for children.”