Leaving your engine running for 10 minutes outside school could net you an £80 fine – and creates enough fumes to fill two JUMBO JETS a year
LEAVING your car engine running while you drop your kids off at school is creating enough pollution to fill two jumbo jets a year.
Letting a car idle for just 10 minutes creates 1,520m³ of excess exhaust fumes causing toxic hotspots at school gates.
Even just letting the car run for a minute a day on the school run generates enough harmful gases to fill 150 balloons, according to a campaign targeting the practice.
And many drivers are completely unaware that leaving your engine to run is in fact against the Highway Code - and can net you an £80 fine.
According to Rule 123: "You must not leave a vehicle engine running unnecessarily while that vehicle is stationary on a public road."
Currently, the City of Westminster is the only council to have an enforceable fine ruling.
But health experts including Public Health England and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence want enforceable "no idling zones" introduced outside schools, hospitals and care homes to protect the most vulnerable.
Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said a fine system could be introduced across the rest of the UK to get the message home.
He added: "With concern about the air we breathe running high, nowhere more so than outside schools, it is simply irresponsible for people to sit with their engines idling making matters worse.
"The Highway Code already prohibits idling but perhaps it will take the introduction of a fine to make people stop and take notice."
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Local councils are currently considering introducing clean air schemes to ban dirty diesels from city centres and a no idling policy could help slash emissions, too.
Andrew Jervis, co-founder of , said: "Switching off your car’s engine whilst you wait at school is a small change which will have a huge impact on our carbon footprint.
"Leaving an engine to idle wastes fuel, costs money and adds to the pollution. It also contributes to the potentially harmful emissions around the school and can affect both yourself within the car and those around.
"By putting a stop to this popular habit, drivers in the UK will be taking a step closer to cleaner, safer air."
Neil Greig, director of policy and research at IAM RoadSmart, added: "Letting your car engine idle near people is selfish and wasteful and switching off will help save the planet and your own hard earned cash.
"IAM RoadSmart don’t object to giving councils the power to fine drivers but they must use these powers with a high degree of common sense."
