Showdown over 4x4s on the school run

Parents took to the street today in protest against the booming trend for mothers to use off-road vehicles for the school run.

Parents and residents gathered by a busy north London junction for a standoff with drivers.

Some protesters from the Alliance Against Urban 4x4s Group donned mortar boards and gowns to issue mothers in SUVs with "could do better" report cards, and fake parking tickets.

There were some angry scenes at the protest outside the Tavistock Centre in Belsize Park as drivers tried to make their past the protesters.

Alliance member Brian Gascoigne said the protest was the only way to get the issue noticed. He said: "Our aim today is to make driving 4x4s as unfashionable as wearing fur for mums. In America one child a week dies because a parent drives over them in a 4x4."

However Sue Summers, a mother and off-road-vehicle driver mum said: "It is ridiculous. They are acting like the drivers are the criminal. We have no choice but to drive our children to school as it is too dangerous to walk to school by themselves for fear they will get mugged."

Campaigners also targeted SUV-drivers on school runs in Manchester, Leeds, Nottingham and

Birmingham. They want higher road tax for the vehicles and a ban on mainstream advertising.

The call by the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety and the British Medical Association coincided with the second reading of the Road Safety Bill.