RELIEVED parents have been told they will not have to pay for parking when dropping off or picking up their children from school.

Mums and dads had been facing the prospect of forking out every time they delivered or collected their youngsters from the Applegarth primary school in Northallerton.

The school is beside the town’s largest long-stay car-park, where charges for motorists were introduce yesterday.

Parents need to use it for the school run - and would have had to pay the £1.50 all-day tariff for the twice-daily use of it for just a few minutes each time.

However now Hambleton District Council have conceded the parents will be able to park for free for 15 minutes when they drop of or pick up their youngsters.

Spokesman David McGloin said: "We were looking at how we were going to manage the enforcement of the car-parks and this fitted in with the needs of the parents."

He said the 15-minute period also gave other users the chance to park, find and use a ticket machine and then return to their vehicle.