School-run drivers ‘are targeted with nails’

POLICE are investigating claims that nails were being glued on to a road to stop school-run parents clogging up a quiet cul-de-sac.

Parents who leave their cars in Rectory Close in Highbridge, Somerset, say they are being deliberately targeted by vandals who are annoyed they are losing their spaces.

There were reports yesterday of nails and screws being deliberately scattered in the road, glued facing upwards and even hidden among leaves.

Police say they are investigating and treating it as criminal damage. Janet Smith, 62, who drops her two grandchildren off at East Brent C of E Academy in Highbridge, recently found a screw on her tyre after parking in Rectory Close.

She said: “Somebody is going to have a nasty accident. The parking isn’t dangerous and nobody is being blocked or anything like that.”

She has since returned to Rectory Close to pick up nails that have been placed in the road, to ensure no one else’s vehicle is affected. She added: “One of the mums was told that if she didn’t stop parking there, she was going to find nails in her tyres.”

Trish Phillips, 35, a mother of three, also found a nail in the tyre of her car.

She said: “I’ve had a puncture, my car gives me a sensor when the tyre pressure drops .... I was parked here when it went off and my husband found the nail afterwards.”

“It is quite hard to find somewhere to park,” she said. “We are not in a place where we can walk to school although we are in the catchment area.”