A county councillor is campaigning to stop parents from blocking the streets around village schools with their cars.

Councillor Caroline Patmore, who represents Stillington, near York, said the congestion was so bad at picking-up and dropping-off times that emergency vehicles would struggle to get access.

She wants to raise awareness of the parking problems among parents and councillors and brought up the matter at a recent Hambleton area committee meeting.

The matter will now be discussed by the council's executive on Tuesday.

Coun Patmore said: "I suspect this is probably an issue outside most of the primary schools in North Yorkshire. It is a problem that has been facing us for a few years.

"Some schools are in small villages along narrow roads and parents' cars often block the streets in the village.

"My concern is that the emergency vehicles won't be able to get through the village."

Coun Patmore said it was up to her and fellow councillors to come up with schemes to try to put an end to the problem.

"I know that some schools do have walk-to-school clubs and I think we need to take this further," she said.

"It is up to councillors to put innovative thoughts together and think of other ways that children can get to school."

The county council is already encouraging parents to use a "five-minute zone" instead of dropping their children off at the school gates.

This involves parking up in a safe place and walking the last five minutes of the journey.

A county council spokes-man said: "It is good for the children and it reduces the level of congestion around the schools.

"Because we live in a large rural county, we obviously can't stop parents taking their children to school. We know that fewer children actually walk to school in North Yorkshire than other areas, simply because we do not have a tight urban environment.

"We have 400 schools in North Yorkshire and we are in the process of introducing traffic calming measures for each and every one, where it is appropriate."