What is it with parents who think they have a divine right to treat the roads as if they own them?

I’ve lost count of the times I’ve seen a badly driven car brandishing a “Child on Board” sticker (odd how there are lots of “Little Princesses” or “Cheeky Monkeys” on board, but not so many “Horribly Behaved Little So-and-Sos”).

I resent being warned to drive carefully just because the car in front has got a child in it, when the driver doesn’t bother to use an indicator while randomly swapping lanes in rush hour traffic.

But as far as parent drivers are concerned, nothing takes the Mick quite like their appalling parking outside schools.

Concerned about illegal parking putting children’s lives at risk, Bradford Council has unveiled a £50,000 CCTV car to patrol schools and catch motorists breaking the law. Fitted with automatic number plate recognition technology, it records details of illegally parked vehicles.

The ‘camera car’ follows a flood of calls from schools asking for help in tackling traffic problems at school gates. According to Council bosses, parents park on zig-zag markings, double yellow lines and block the drives of nearby homes on a daily basis. Children have to dodge cars parked haphazardly or doing U-turns, andmotorists sometimes become aggressive with Council wardens when asked to move on.

This week is Walk To School Week, encouraging parents to leave the car at home. Many pupils live within walking distance of school and it’s much better for them, mentally and physically, to walk. Teachers report that those who walk to school are more attentive at their desks.

Whenever I’ve accompanied my nephews on their ten-minute walk to or from school, we’ve had fun pointing things out along the way, from a collection of garden gnomes to an awesome (their words) cement-mixer on the site of a house build.

These are things the boys would have missed travelling to school in a car every day. Yet outside their school you can’t move for cars parked nose-to-bumper. My sister once pointed out a 4X4 right outside the school gates, belonging to a parent who lived practically next door. Surely it takes more effort to start up a gas-guzzler, get it off the drive, edge into a busy road and squeeze into an illegal parking spot than it does to simply walk your child a few yards to school.

Parents who can avoid using their cars should take up the Walk To School Week challenge and get their children outside in the fresh air. Nobody wants to see an “Obese, Lazy Child Cooped up in Air Conditioning” sticker in the window of the car in front.