School drop off C U next Tuesdays

You should ask the council to close the road to through traffic during drop off and pick up times. They’ve just done this for our school and are building a decent road crossing a bit further up which will help parents get their kids safely into the school.

Parking was never an issue when I was a kid, because most of us either walked or got the bus to and from school.

Fast forward a few years, and it is utterly ridiculous. When my youngest left their primary school a couple of years ago, I was so happy - mainly because I would not have to put up with the daily lunacy of parking, and the idiotic drivers behind the wheel.

Despite weekly reminders, and parking patrols, it is still awful. My children's old primary is on a residential (one way) street. There would regularly be around 10 cars parked fully on the pavement on one side, and the other side had cars nose to tail / half on the pavement / engines running / parked on the yellow lines / parked on the zebra crossing zig-zags. Obviously, the parents and children had to walk into the road because the pavement was blocked.

There were a couple of near misses too where cars mounted the pavement; one just missed my child by millimetres.

Yes, I drove my children to school, but I parked well away from the carnage and walked them in.

Oh, and there were invariably a couple of mum's arguing and trying to pull lumps our of each other too. Such a lovely thing for the children to witness.

In an ideal world, there would be patrols outside every school, slapping parking tickets on those offenders. Every. single. Time.

Totally agree. People turn into maniacs when doing the school drop off / pick up. The terrible driving and parking are a mix of laziness and entitlement l think

Our school has the option to use a council car park right next to the school, free of charge for drop off and pick up with permits issued for those times.

There's plenty of space but parents still drive like nutters through the car park, trying to get the spots closest to the gate (saving themselves about 100 metres of walking). Lots of us who walk in have to walk through the car park and I dread it every time because people drive in and out of spaces with no regard for pedestrians. One day a grandparent got clipped!

These parents are everywhere. When my DDs were at primary school (long time ago) the school regularly sent out emails reminding parents to park properly and drive slowly near the school. Made no difference.
I made the decision to stop walking to school and drove instead (but not like a total twat) because walking was fucking dangerous.
I had hoped things would be better when DS started last year (given that my youngest DD left primary school 8 years ago) if anything it's worse. There is a zebra crossing by the school and me and DS have nearly been hit on there so many times.
Spoken to school who also send emails which the twat parents ignore, because the rules don't apply to them.

Regarding pavement parking, it’s not just about vehicles blocking the pavement – it’s also about the damage they cause. My young child is registered blind and uses a wheelchair, and our walks along certain pavements in the area are made really uncomfortable because of the damage caused by persistent pavement parking. Some of the potholes left by heavy vehicles force his wheelchair to tip to the side, which absolutely terrifies him.

I find myself constantly on alert, looking not just for broken area of pavement but also for overgrown hedges, piles of dog mess, and vehicles that make the paths unsafe for him.

They think it's ok if they put the hazard lights on!
Heaven forfend a child should walk for 5 minutes.

We have the pleasure of living in a courtyard round the corner from a school and nursery. At school drop offs and pick ups it is insanity. They will park anywhere they can’t fit and will think nothing of causing a hazard to other vehicles and pedestrians including the children. The courtyard needs constant access for council HGV and ambulances but do they care?
We wrote to the head teacher and tbh he thinks they are all ignorant knobheads who have ignored his every effort to manage the safety of the children during these times. He said they even park on the jagged lines outside the front gates. He despairs at their entitlement.
I think they were wrong to attack turkey twizzlers - if they don’t want fat spoiled kids they should have a look at banning cars from parking within a mile of a school

I hear your OP. People are so so bloody selfish. Want to hear something even worse?! My daughter’s school has no parking but is RIGHT bESIDE, literally next door to a huge council swimming/gym complex. The school have an agreement with the council that parents can park in their huge empty car park for pick ups and drop offs. Literally less than 30 second walk from there to the school door. Yet parents still insist on parking on the zig zags and creating chaos outside the school. Trying to cross the road with my 4 and 2 year old feels like dicing with death sometimes. I can’t for the life of me understand it, usually they’re parked further away than the bloody car park on their zig zags. Unbelievable.

This. All parents complain, but then drop their kids off at the gate. It always applies to everyone else.

O yes! I live right next to the primary school my kids go to! I've been quite shocked at how people act.
I've also had to make a couple of complaints about people parking over my driveway, then when I asked them to move giving a mouthful! Primary schools normally hsve good links with the local police and pcs (or what ever they are called). I speak to them in town regularly, they would pop up to school and have a chat and monitor the parking.

There are some awful parents at our primary school who park either on or blocking local residents' driveways and swear at them when asked to move! It's sad that the school can't have a good relationship with the local community thanks to these twats.

What can the school do about it? They're not in charge of the road outside the school. Same thing happens at every primary school, so entitled.

I love her!

Depends if they are just stopping to let their kids get out, or parking and getting out of the car themselves.

We had Chelsea tractors parking on top of flat gravestones in the churchyard next door to our primary school. It was at that point in time I gave up on expecting decent behaviour from some parents. 🤯 There was also a stand up row or two between parents about a parking space. In front of their children.

🙈🙈🙈🙈

The HT of the school that's on our street is relentless with parents about parking after an incident a couple of years ago when an ambulance couldn't get to a house because of cars abandoned for drop off.

She arranged with the pub for parents to use their car park. It's literally a 2 minute walk. There's also a walking bus staffed by school staff (who kindly volunteer) twice in the morning and twice at the end of the day. So zero need to park anywhere else.

She quite happily puts in the news letter and on the Facebook page for owners of reg Nos to contact her for assistance at pick up and drop off. People are mortified at the implication they need assistance so there's is far far less shit parking on the street since she started.

She also randomly patrols the street if things are getting bad and directs parents to the car park.

Someone rather sharply said to her once "you care more about parking than uniform" (a few parents don't like her post Covid changes to uniform) and she replied very bluntly "uniform isn't going to kill anyone, bad parking almost did"

Same here - the business over the road literally opens their gates at school run time to let parents park in their car park, officially and safely, proper agreement with the school. Neanderthals still insist on parking on the zigzags right outside the gates to save a 30 second walk. So brainless. The school can’t do anything about it apparently other than get fluorescent and very noticeable parking enforcers out from the council once a term. So obviously they never catch anyone as they are very visible. On those days, the Neanderthals do magically manage to park properly it seems! They’re pure lazy.

Speak to the Head teacher and ask them.to contact the road policing dept. Get a traffic warden/community police officer down to observe the situation. My kids primary had an on going issue with parents parking on the yellow zigzags. Letters from HT had no effect. Eventually, exasperated, the school got a traffic warden to attend at from 840am.and they ticketed the whole lot of them. Same at 3pm, all got parking fines 😆 it soon stopped 🤣

Because they behave like toddlers.

Oh I dunno.
Toddlers are eternally entitled beings.

🤣

Entitled toddlers!!!!! How the hell did I manage to put that. I obviously meant parents.

Is there single yellow lines? Our school often have the council parking officers outside and they fine anyone doing this. That keeps them at bay for awhile. There's always a couple of idiots that chance it but most don't fancy a parking fine.

Depressing to think this has gone on for years and all over the country

Yes, agreed.

It's also depressing that some people can't just write the word CUNT and be done with it.

My DS old primary had an agreement with the Leisure centre opposite that they could use their big car park for dropping and picking off kids.

Unfortunately some entitled toddlers started parking in the disabled bays as it was easier to get off the car park. Despite warnings from the head that this arrangement would end if it carried on they still did it. The same sets of parents every time.

The last straw for the leisure centre was when one of the dads was challenged by someone needing the bay and he told them if they were that disabled they wouldn’t be going to a leisure centre!!!!

so the arrangement stopped and the same parents block drives and drop off on the yellow lines. It all came to a head when one of them clipped the lovely lolly pop man with his car as he tried to go round him. The police got involved and for a while everyone parked better but it’s creeping back now. Just glad my son is no longer there. My nephew still is so we there and my sister in law parks about a mile away and walks up to school.