Please read the essential information from the Tauranga City Council's Travel Safe Team.

Recently there has been a number of instances of unsafe parking behaviour creating a potentially dangerous environment for children coming to and from school. Tauranga City Council has also received complaints from some surrounding Bethlehem residents in regards with the parking and driving behaviour around Bethlehem School.

Please do not park on yellow lines, bus stops, footpaths, or blocking vehicle entrances. The red lines in the image above indicates cycle lanes, vehicles may not park or stop on a cycle lane. Please ensure they are kept clear at all times for the safety of our children and wider community.

The TCC Parking and Travel Safe team will be visiting the area to monitor, and talk to drivers. This will be followed with regular monitoring and drivers may be ticketed for illegal parking.

We encourage families to park away from school safely and walk the last part of the journey. The school will also be working alongside Travel Safe TCC to see if a "park and stride" option for our school is possible because we are aware that parking is limited in front of the kura.

We realise this is may be inconvenient, but we have to put the safety of the school community as the top priority.

How families can support a safe environment:

• Follow the road rules which includes legal parking.
• Pre-plan a meeting place with your children away from school to help reduce congestion.
• Bike, walk, scooter to school to help reduce congestion, be fit and healthy.
• Use the designated safe school crossings on Bethlehem Road and Carmichael Road, even if you need to walk a little further.
• When School Road patrols are operating, please pay attention to their instructions.
• Choose safety over convenience and look out for all our children.
• Be prepared for wet weather and pack a rain jacket, parking away is still a great option on a rainy day.

A last idea would be to explore if any parents are interested in doing a walking school bus to lesson congestion at the school gate, then they can contact the Travel Safe team via the Travelsafeschools@tauranga.govt.nz and the team at Travel Safe will be able to set that up for you.