Enraged parents are on the hunt for a school-run ‘saboteur’ as several have been left with punctured tyres after boobytraps have been left on the grassy verges in their village.
Several parents have been left stranded with flat tyres after pulling up outside Creeting St Mary Church of England Primary School in Suffolk at drop-off and pick-up times.
The makeshift boobytraps are buried sharp-side-up on street-level grass verges alongside the narrow road which parents drive on to, to try and leave enough space for other traffic to pass.
Now they fear children and pets could be hurt by the ‘selfish actions’ of the vandal or vandals behind the ‘unhinged’ campaign, which is being investigated by police.
Among the disgruntled parents is NHS nurse Angharad, who was forced to cancel all her patients appointments when three of her tyres were flattened by screws.
‘There were six screws and nails stuck in it,’ the 33-year-old told the Times: ‘I had literally only been on the school run that day, and nowhere else.’
Dubbed ‘Britain’s most bitter school run’ ten out of the 70 families of pupils have been affected by the vandal since the beginning of the year, the Times reports
Inci Kara, 40, who has a child at the school, said: ‘The nails are positioned upwards deliberately because they don’t want us to park here and that is worrying.’I know a lady who last year had to change four of her tyres because of this but now it is happening again.’
Another parent, Stephanie Wilson, 41, told the BBC: ‘Multiple parents have said they have had their tyres flattened but my main concern is if a child that is walking home falls and lands on them or a dog walks on them.’
The school, which is rated ‘good’ by Ofsted, has around 100 pupils aged five to 11, some of whom walk or cycle there from their homes.
But one of its teaching assistants, Amy Banthorpe, 32, warned that healthy activity was being threatened by the risk from sharp objects hidden on the route.
‘It’s slightly unhinged really that someone is doing this and our biggest concern really is that a child is going to get severely injured,’ she said.
‘It’s horrendous and quite shocking to us all and seems people have not thought through the potential risks – a tyre could blow out and it could be catastrophic.’
Local Rick Keating, 69, said sabotaging cars and putting children at risk was not the answer to congestion in school hours.
‘Parents are parking up and down the street and it’s a hassle in the mornings when school is opening and a hassle in the afternoon when school is out,’ he added.
‘But there is no place to park, basically, so there’s really no way round it.’
The village’s parish council clerk, Jennie Blackburn, confirmed the nails and screws appeared to have been placed ‘deliberately’.
She said: ‘As soon as they’re picked up, more are found in the day or two afterwards.
‘Last week… the school contacted me and said another nine nails had been found on the verge and the heads had been pushed into the ground, so the nail was pointing upwards.
‘This has arisen from parking issue in the village – the same as many rural schools, that parking is an issue. The council has been trying to find land to help with parking.’
Locals only began to piece together the possibility of a vandal in May following the damage to Angharad’s car, despite initial reports in January.
Amateur sleuths honed in on one road near the school where they discovered several screws found upright.
One property owner was said to be known amongst locals for arguing with parents about parked vehicles, according to the Times.
However the individual in question has vehemently denied the allegations, branding it a plot by the parents because they are upset with resident ‘complaining about their parking’.
They told the Times : ‘I don’t have any problem with [the school run]. But when people park across your driveway and up on the verge, you can get annoyed.
‘That verge used to be a foot wider. We cut the grass on it. Our water meter has been broken twice by people parking on top of it.’
He claimed to the Times that he is currently having work done to his home and that no construction workers have experienced punctures.
The retired aircraft engineer also remarked that screws wouldn’t be able to cause such damage being alleged.
Suffolk Police confirmed they had received reports of attempted criminal damage and criminal damage, with the most recent on September 17.
‘The report was that nails or screws had been placed in the upwards direction along All Saints Road, near to the primary school,’ a spokesman said.
‘A similar report was received in the same area in May, which damaged two car tyres, while another report has also been received of damage of vehicle tyres (one vehicle) on four occasions between January and May of this year.’
‘No arrests have been made and the investigation is ‘ongoing’.