KIDS are being asked to shop' their parents as part of a school's campaign to halt traffic chaos.

Armed with notepads and pens, pupils from Red Hill Primary School stand outside their front gates in Red Hill, Chislehurst, writing down car number plates.

And headteacher Elaine Alford will be sending letters to parents identified by her team of pupils as persistently illegally parking on the yellow zig-zag lines outside the school or in a no-parking area next to the staff car park.

She is standing with the children outside the school during this week's project and filming the worst offenders.

If the situation does not improve Mrs Alford says she might give this video evidence to the police.

She said: "We're hoping with pupil power we're going to get the parents to understand what their parking and dropping off is doing.

"They do not think it matters and they do not see it as a danger.

"We have to change the mindset of people and we would rather children were a few minutes later if their parents are parking down the road."

Mrs Alford has recruited children from Year 5 and Year 6 to help with the project because they know who the cars belong to.

She added: "I believe in the power of children and I believe they could be quite a strong force."

When the project ends on Friday afternoon Mrs Alford and her team of volunteers will review the video and written evidence and produce a report about the problem.

She will then decide whether the exercise has been a success and whether to do it again next term.

Mrs Alford discussed the issue with the school's council and governors before deciding to go ahead this week.

The school council is made up of two representatives from each of Redhill School's 23 classes. Redhill Primary School has 613 pupils aged between five and 11.

Mrs Alford's actions have been praised by Roger Lawson, chairman of the Bromley Borough Road Action Group.

He said: "There's certainly a lot of very bad parking there by people picking up and dropping off their children.

"I support any discouragement of people doing that."

Chislehurst Library supervisor Angela Paine said: "It can be quite dangerous round here at those times of the day so I welcome the headteacher's initiative.

"Something needs to be done to make the area safer for other members of the public and the children."

What do you think of the idea? Have your say now - click here