Parents were shocked last week as two school trip coaches received parking tickets – just minutes before leaving and only metres away from the waiting children.

On Friday morning (July 10), the buses arrived at Epping Primary School in Coronation Hill at around 8.30am, ready to take a group of year three pupils on an end-of-term trip to the British Museum in London.

As registration was held in the school hall just metres away, parents waited until the planned leaving time of 8.45am.

While they waited, a traffic warden arrived and issued parking tickets to the two vehicles for being stopped on “zig-zag” lines, despite being told that children would be boarding within minutes.

“I appreciate he has got a job to do, but a bit of consideration and a bit of humanity would not have gone amiss,” said Tessa Barrell, 36, of Tower Road, parent of two children at the school.

“If the coach was blocking the road then fair enough, but it was not.

“Other cars were parked how they should not have been.

“We explained to him the children were literally feet away from him, and he said ‘I have been told by the council directly that I can ticket them’.

“There were a few parents there that were completely disgusted.

“It is going to cause issues for children going on trips and swimming lessons.”

She added: “I know normally cars are not allowed to park there but there is nowhere else for them to park.

“It is very residential and they do not have a place to park anywhere else for the safety of the children.

“The coach driver said he had been coming to the school for four years and there had never been a problem.”

After the drivers from Olympian coaches were ticketed, they left as planned with the children “completely oblivious” according to Ms Barrell.

“It is a bit silly and unfair,” said the school’s head teacher Tracy O’Donnell.

“It is really unfair on our children.

“It creates a little bit of a hostile atmosphere.

“We have no designated parking area, we do not have a layby, there is nowhere where a coach can park safely other than outside.”

Parking issues are the responsibility of the North Essex Parking Partnership, a collaboration between Epping Forest District Council and other authorities.

Following criticism of the council’s “go-ahead” for the fines, a spokesman for the NEPP said: “The North Essex Parking Partnership are responsible for enforcing restrictions for the safety of motorists and the public.

“In this case two coaches were parked on zig-zag lines outside a school, which are in place for the protection of the school children.

“We do not give anyone dispensation to park on these lines.”

Epping Forest Guardian:

One of the two school coaches, with parking ticket under the windscreen wiper