At 8.45am and 3pm every day, cars the size of small buses thunder up outside schools gates, wheels on the pavement, parking on zig-zags with scant regard for pedestrians or other road users.

Mostly driven by selfish mothers, who must be as close to the school gates as possible, it's a wonder more children and passers-by haven't been maimed or killed outside schools.

It's always an anomaly that parents – mothers mostly – act so dangerously and thoughtlessly, risking children's safety every day.

And the bigger the car, often the worse the driving and parking.

To save lives, Havering council in London, after campaigns and requests have fallen on deaf ears, considers parking near six of its schools to be so dangerous that it is using a law that allows anti-social behaviour to be punished as criminal offences.

Parents will now be fined up to £1,000 and will have a criminal record for parking dangerously while dropping off their children at school. Persistent offenders should be given a short ban from driving. Make them walk to school or get public transport to see, and feel, the danger drivers like them pose every day.

•The views above are those of Rachel Moore. Read more columnists in the EDP each day.