DRIVERS who continue to flout road rules should be shamed into complying, BCP Council's deputy leader has said.

Councillor Mark Howell said embarrassment was an underused tool and could be part of its new campaign aimed at stopping people from leaving their engines running while stopped.

Speaking at Wednesday’s meeting of the council’s transportation advisory group, he said, “half-jokingly”, that stickers could be put on cars whose drivers do not comply with anti-idling rules.

The new campaign is expected to be rolled out to “a small number” of primary schools with the aim of improving air quality in the area.

The two-year trial is set to begin in September, funded through £50,000 remaining from a government grant. It will be run in conjunction with Public Health Dorset.

Members of the transportation advisory group gave their unanimous backing to the project but urged enforcement measures to be considered as part of it.

Councils can issue £20 fines to drivers who refuse to comply with requests to switch off their vehicles’ engines. The meeting was told the government was considering increasing the penalty.

Councillor Tony O’Neill said he “broadly supported” the idea of the campaign but said it needed the “teeth” of enforcement.

“This would make it a policy or practice but I’m constantly told that we don’t have enough traffic wardens at the moment,” he said.

Council infrastructure director Julian McLaughlin said staffing levels were being reviewed as part of a wider examination of car parking policy but that it was a “difficult” job to recruit to.

Cllr Howell suggested the campaign make better use of shaming drivers who do not comply by putting stickers on their cars.

“If the glues were not harmful to the car we could then hand out stickers saying ‘I’m an idle…’ and slap it on their car and it would annoy and embarrass them,” he said.

“It’s half funny but half serious because you do need to embarrass people. The kind of people that do this don’t care about what they’re doing to the environment.

He added: “We don’t use shame enough in modern society.”

Cabinet member for the environment, councillor Felicity Rice, said she hoped the “pestering power” of primary school children would persuade parents to turn off their engines when stopped.

The campaign, should it be given the go-ahead by the full cabinet in the coming weeks, will see participating schools given “toolkits” to be used in conjunction with the curriculum.

The trial is due to run through the 2020/21 and 2021/22 school years but could be extended and rolled out to more primary schools.