Police are warning parents that they are putting other children's lives at risk by not parking safely on the school run.

Primary schools across the Bradford district face an ongoing problem of mums and dads parking in hazardous places.

They are also having to battle with the dangers of congestion from the sheer volume of traffic created by the morning and afternoon school runs.

Police, schools and Bradford Council staff are working hard to tackle the problem and warned that youngsters are being placed in danger by inconsiderate drivers.

PC Brian Feather, a school liaison officer for Bradford South Police, said: "It is a massive problem. Just about every primary school now has got that type of issue.

"We get complaints on a regular basis from schools about access to peoples' drives being blocked and cars being parked on double yellow or zig-zag lines.

"You can't see any obvious answer unless people take responsibility for their actions and park sensibly.

"Unless they do, it is inevitable at some stage there will be an injury or worse. It has happened before and it will happen again. It is just a matter of when and where."

PC Feather, who is a governor at Wibsey Primary, said only last week there was an incident at the school when a Council official challenged a dad who had parked on the zig-zag lines outside the school and was met with verbal abuse.

Last November the Council held a crackdown on pavement parking in the district.

And during the same month police issued 41 fixed penalty notice tickets for driving offences in Wibsey following complaints from residents about parking problems outside primary schools in the area.

Cottingley Village Primary tried introducing a Park and Stride initiative, where parents of older children were encouraged to park a five-minute walk from the school. But deputy head Pam Allen said few parents took up the option.

She said surrounding roads were very busy with more than 200 parents arriving in cars every morning and afternoon.

She said: "We do have some problems with parents parking where they shouldn't, but we have a wonderful caretaker who stands at the gate and draws their attention to it when they park in the wrong place."

Mrs Allen said the school had a puffin crossing and a crossing patrol, but there had been no applicants to man a second patrol post.

The school had also come to an arrangement with a local pub for parents to use its car park when dropping or collecting their youngsters.

Bradford Council is planning a number of traffic calming measures to help deal with the problem. There will be school zones with warning signs and raised plateaus in the road to slow vehicles down, at Wibsey. Other locations may see 20mph zones implemented.

The Council's Road Safety Unit continues to support schools by encouraging parents to leave their cars at home and walk to school with their children.