Banning the school run

[AElfgifu]

leading on from driving/walking thread, Gove suggests banning driving children to school.

All schools to be double red lined ( not stopping, unloading, pausing at all.)

all roads within half a mile of a school to be resident parking by permit only during school drop off or pick up time.

parents not allowed to park within half a mile of their school.

(Although most roads round here must be within half a mile of a school?)

[guinnessgirl]

I understand the motivation here, but that's RIDICULOUS execution. What about parents who are driving to work and drop children off on the way? what if that's the only way they can get to work on time? (this may well be my reality when DS starts school!)

[Joules68]

Banning driving to school? How can he police that.... I drive myself to work once I've dropped them off. One is at school miles away with no school transport

Ridiculous

You mean he's rearranging parking?

[princesssootsprite]

what about disabled parents?

[Crikeyblimey]

Ridiculous! I drop ds at school on my way to work. I would have to walk a mile there, a mile back and then drive past the school to get to work (late).

Stupid idea!

[AElfgifu]

No, not rearranging parking, just saying parents are not allowed to park within half a mile of the school their children attend. i assume disabled parents will be able to use the staff carpark, if there is room. So you can still drop off on the way to work, but not close to the school.

[dawndonnaagain]

Stupid London centric idea. I live rurally, apart from the fact that I have one dd who uses a wheelchair and another who has EDS, the school is nine miles away and there isn't a bus. I used to drive a just over a mile to the bus stop.

[rookiemater]

How ridiculous ! If that was the case for DS's school I'd probably have to give up work. Either that or leave the house stupidly early and pay extra for breakfast club and more after school.

I live in Scotland and one of the reasons that we send DS to a private school is that we are not in the catchment area of the local school that DS could walk safely to that is a mile away. Instead it is a school 2.1 miles away across busy roads.

If he wants to come up with suggestions like these, he needs to also have positive solutions that make it possible like having paid people there to support DCs walking into school.

[PersonalClown]

I'd like to see what would happen with Toad's SN school where the majority of the 155 pupils arrive by mini bus!

[AllDirections]

I generally walk but sometimes I'm unable to because I have fibromyalgia. Some days it's absolute agony just to hobble from the car into the playground.

[IneedAwittierNickname]

I don't drive so for me personally, not a problem.

However, sometimes the dc are at my mums house andstill need to come to school. (she lives the other side of town, its about 5.5 miles IIRC)

They come in the car, they COULD get the bus if they had to, but then Mum would have to bus herself to work, and bus herself home again.

As it is, she parks at my house which is a permit road but she can park here for 2 hours.

[AElfgifu]

dawndonnaagain, you can still drive up to half a mile away from the school. it's nothing to do with London.

[AElfgifu]

rookiemater, I think he wants the parents to walk DC into school

[Sirzy]

I can see the benefits, although I think half a mile is too much and some sort of permit would be needed for disabled children/parents.

The school DS goes to is horrendous at drop off and pick up time because of the stupid driving and parking on the residential road. There is a pub and a church both within 2-3 mins walk which parents have been told they can park at and walk the children in but very few do. This is a school with a catchment of less than 3/4 of a mile (most years under half a mile)

[KnittingRocks]

It is a ridiculous idea but the school run has got out of control - we have two secondary schools near us and parents cause traffic chaos trying to close as humanly possible to the school gates . Have their precious wickle teenagers lost the ability to use their bloody legs?!

[Icimoi]

all roads within half a mile of a school to be resident parking by permit only during school drop off or pick up time.

So how does that work for people who happen to live near a school who may have countless reasons for having people to visit them by car - e.g. people staying with them, people who come round for the afternoon, vehicles doing deliveries, vehicles owned by people coming round to do work in the house, meals on wheels, social workers and carers visiting, etc etc?

Sound like yet another bit of stupid posturing by Gove, to be honest. He knows that he's not likely to be at the Department for Education much longer whatever happens at the election, so he's basically spouting forth anything that he misguidedly thinks will work well with the electorate.

[Rideronthestorm]

It won't happen but, as someone with a school in the lane, I'd love double red lines.

[TheAmazingChandler]

Loads of parents drop off on the way to work. There is a school less than half a mile from my school so I would have to park half a mile from the other school and walk almost a 2 mile round trip instead of my usual 50yds. (can't park at other side of school, it's all fields and a water treatment plant. I imagine Gove would think parents don't want to do that because they are lazy fuckers, rather than because they don't want to be half an hour late for work.
If I can't do pick up, DP (self employed) leaves work to do it. It would be a huge pita to make this take so much longer.
Maybe Gove wants to make everyone use breakfast and after school clubs so he can get his increased, joyless, school day.

[KeepingUpAnon]

I think it's an excellent idea.

I am so sick of the inconsiderate wankers who park outside schools, covering crossings and blocking the road. For residents it must be a huge pita.

If you can't manage a half a mile walk (excluding those with disabilities who I'm assuming wouldn't be included in this) then something's wrong.

[BillnTedsMostFeministAdventure]

So one arm of government wants all parents of school age to work, and the other wants them to be half an hour late for work every day?

What DO they talk about in Cabinet?

[LadyIsabellaWrotham]

I guess the idea is to make driving to school sufficiently inconvenient that only the people who really have to do it will. That's a huge burden on the people who are behaving reasonably (eg driving children to their nearest school five miles and three buses away) in order to change the behaviour of the ones behaving unreasonably.

Do blue badges enable you to park in residents' permits zones?

[fuzzpig]

We walk every day but this would worry me on behalf of disabled parents :( (of which I am one, thankfully DH was able to do the school run when I was at my worst)

[LtEveDallas]

DDs current school is 3 miles away down a dual carriageway. It's at the edge of town that has metered parking and is surrounded by housing.

The parking is in the rugby club carpark whose field backs on to the school. How exactly would Gove police that, seeing as it's private land owned by a private club and 'loaned' to the school (for free) for 2 hours a day.

Idiot.

[AllDirections]

I'm not classed as disabled so I wonder if I'd be allowed a permit

There's loads of parking space available at DD3's school but the parents all want to park right outside rather than walk 30 seconds to get their DC to school. So we end up with wardens patrolling directly outside of the gates. What a waste of public resources!

[Gileswithachainsaw]

I'm stuffed then as bus stops at top of the road the school is on. Can they redline a main road? Where could I get off the bus?

I agree parents should walk their kids to school were possible as the amount who drive yet live locally is ridiculous. It must take longer to load at than it would to walk. Parking also makes the road unsafe for children to cross and where they park on the corner I can't see traffic well enough to cross over for the bus stop to go home so something needs doing.

[Iggly]

Again I ask Tory voters

Explain your party. Gove is the embodiment of the nanny state. Explain.