PARENTS who idle their cars outside schools will be the target of a campaign being planned by Poole council.

Measures such as introducing parking restrictions, increasing enforcement and a children’s information campaign are being considered in a bid to reduce the number of cars being left with their engines running at pick-up and drop-off times.

The council has “the majority” of a £50,000 fund from the government left over which it plans to use on improving air quality around schools.

A report to Tuesday’s meeting of its place scrutiny committee said that a joint project between its environment and infrastructure departments is being “scoped” with the aim of reducing pollution and congestion.

It said: “By encouraging more active travel modes for the school journey, and thus potentially reducing congestion, parking and idling in these areas, local air quality could be improved.”

Speaking at the meeting, the council’s regulatory services manager, Peter Haikin, said that a number of measures were being considered.

“We are proposing to work with the schools to find ways, through the children, of reaching the parents who do this [idle their cars].

“I know that they [council infrastructure officers] have been looking at the possibility of using some of our enforcement officers on this but also restricting parking along those areas or having to park a certain distance away from schools.”

However, Cllr Andy Hadley said that the council needed to be “far more ambitious”.

“The measures we have proposed for getting people out of cars are really pretty poor,” he said.

“If we are after improving air quality, then supporting walking and cycling is the best way to do it – we should be far more ambitious than this.”

The council is planning to use the remainder of a government grant it was awarded to produce studies of air pollution in the borough to fund any new anti-idling measures.

Mr Haikin said that the council still had “the majority” of the £50,000 it was given by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and that it had not been requested to return the unspent funds.

A report on the proposed anti-idling campaign is due to be put to the transportation advisory group at its meeting on January 19.