Have zero sympathy for parents for parents being fined for breaking parking rules outside schools

No, nothing justifies shitty parking around schools, no matter how much you try to turn this into a class or financial issue.

We have loads of resident's parking only areas in my town. Mainly narrow roads of 2 bedroom terraced houses with no front gardens - I wouldn't class them as "Hyacinth Bucket" homes!

Consider also that residents don't just pay the charge for having a resident parking permit. They still pay the same charges for road maintenance as everyone else, in fact higher in some cases depending on the value of the house taking them into a higher council tax band.

And it isn't "Just so you don't have to look at cars on your street for 15 minutes twice a day, for 188 days a year." Some people are stuck in their homes for a chunk of time when they may well be wanting to get their own car out to drive to work, due to parents blocking the road double parked etc.. No chance of parking if you come home in the afternoon either, as they will be sitting in their cars from about 2:15 onwards so you have to park your own car half a mile away probably stopping another resident from parking near THEIR home. Then either go out again later to move your car nearer home, or have the same hassle in the mornings. If they have a driveway or garage they can't get out as parents are parked across them illegally, and you read cases on here where parents are parking in the resident's own driveway.

Try parking half a mile from home every night when you have a disability, or have shopping to carry, or small children including push chairs etc. I find it hard enough to park often when I get home & I don't even live near a school, just in a street with many homes with multiple cars.

Phone and ask them to visit more frequently

Unfortuately a Residents zone doesn't stop parents parking like idiots everywhere. The warden only visits every few months.

(And in our case, the Residents Zone is to stop airport parking. The school bit is a coincidence.)

Got no skin in the game, been a long time since my kids were in school and I didn't have a car back then. But it's Hyacinth Bucket gone mad to have folks policing who can and can't drive and park on public roads. That piffling charge you pay in no way covers maintenance and repair costs for a road, doesn't touch the sides, it maybe just about buys you an hour a week of warden wages. It would take several decades for it to even cover the costs of the initial council admin consultation and planning time.

Oh I did not know that. Actualy seen a learner on trade plates that was funny.

Nah, I’m all for these now. My town is almost solely residents only, or paid parking streets. It’s much more pleasant. There’s a car park for those who want to go to the shops.

People ruined it for themselves by parking inconsiderately.

Ps there’s an ongoing charge for these schemes. Don’t try to dress up your anger that you can’t dump your car as close as possible to school, as mainly a financial concern for the wider community.

Recently knocked on the window of the car of a Mum parked up. Offered her reading lessons, cue puzzled look. I pointed to the sign "Parking here endangers children's lives". She shrugged. Oh for a traffic warden.....

We've had to get our street changed to residents parking only, because of it all.

This is exactly the middle class entitled attitude I was talking about and it's cropping up with increasing frequency. If you don't want anyone driving or parking on your street you should take over the costs of maintaining it from the local authority. Why on earth are taxpayers required to fund what is now essentially your own private car park? These schemes aren't without set-up costs either - well over £10k for the consultation, planning etc not to mention ongoing enforcement. So that's been added to everyone's already massive council tax bill. Just so you don't have to look at cars on your street for 15 minutes twice a day, for 188 days a year.

Plus it does nothing to actually square the circle of inflexible school/work start times, shitty national public transport provision, cripplingly expensive or inadequate or non-existent wraparound care etc while schools just wag their hands around and tell people to walk.

https://www.gov.uk/trade-licence-plates/rules

In particular

You can only use the plates for the purpose you write on your application form. For example, if you say they’ll be used for customers to test drive vehicles for sale, they cannot be used for other purposes.

Hi, you can report the misuse of trade plates by emailing [email protected]. Please include the nature of misuse and any trade plate number used. A warning letter will then be sent to the registered holder of the trade plate.

How far is too far to walk? Most primary schools, unless very rural are walkable.

Where is the closest place you can park legally and walk?

I live in a similar situation but it's a railway station not a school, thet repainted the double yellow lines but still people park like it's a car park and many adults are dropped off and collected as they equally may melt in the rain! Their selfishness when some of these adults could just park a little down the road and the commuters walk a bit like 30 seconds means that at busy times of day the residents are trapped if it was a fire or an ambulance needed to drive down here it is not happening as I have already seen my neighbour's as ambulance not being able to pass!

With the school run I once saw three parents physically stop a parent parking on the zig zags outside the school by standing on them!!

No sympathy here. I wish they’d come around by us more often. They might even catch the gaggle of parents who say an extra 20 min. Last week they were stood chatting in the roads i had to drive around then. It was ridiculous!

My DD goes to a school where there's not enough parking. A resident complains once in a while & they put up more no parking signs, but no alternative options. The school keeps campaigning for more students (even though it's already full). There's no public transport & it's too far to walk.

We did campaign, fundraise, and manage to build a new carpark in the grounds. New principal decided it would be a staff carpark. It's about 1/3 full at pickup but us lowly parents aren't allowed to use it.

So there are sometimes reasons people park illegally. Where I park, if desperate l, it affects no one, as it's at a dead end and no through traffic. But our council has a new camera car to sweep past, issue fines remotely & do nothing to fix the situation. I've told DH I'll get a fine at some point & just have to wear it as there's no option.

It's the same here (I'm in Australia not city just suburbia but it's growing like nothing else) we live about 200m from my sons primary school (he is in high school now) and they park like twats we have a parking lane up and down the street and most parents park there but many park over driveways in the kiss and ride section which is like 5 metres from a corner so holds up buses and other cars so many near misses and the buses can hardly get around the corners with cars parked everywhere (it's a single lane road) and if people are driving the other way i seriously feel like buses scrape cars sometimes.
Some parents have so much entitlement it's crazy and they even start lining up at 1:30pm even though school doesn't finish til 3:10 I just wish I had that much free time to sit in the car.

Most American kids take school busses to and from school. When I was a kid my parents very rarely drove me to school. Bussing is the norm here.

Car Parks built near schools would be empty pretty much all day, it'd be an incredible waste of land. People just need to tell their kids to walk or cycle to school. Or get the bus. Or find a nearer school. Or move closer to the existing school.

Usually I'm the first to agree with this sort of sentiment but here, no.

At our school loads of dads do school runs. Like, close to 50/50. There are lots of grandparents too and probably about a third of those are grandfathers. The terribly dangerous parking is done by both men and women. It's terribly dangerous no matter who is doing it.

I also disagree that schools should have parking near. I mean firstly it's impossible unless you're building a new school. Most schools are in residential areas, there would be no way to suddenly create additional car parking nearby anyway. Secondly we should be encouraging other ways of travel not cars. Thirdly your comment about workplaces I also don't agree, absolutely loads of workplaces don't have good parking options nearby! I work in the NHS and my employer has very limited employee permit parking, the waiting list for a permit is literally years and years long. The closest parking option otherwise is a city centre based multistorey that is about 20 mins walk way and costs a fair bit. Many primary school aged children in inner city areas live less than 20 mins walk from their school anyway.

In my town and the place I work, the council allows free parking in town car parks no more than 5 minutes walk from the schools… they allow onsite permits for families with mobility issues etc.

you still get people parking dangerously, blocking pavements, double yellows and disrupting local businesses, they give you abuse if you ask them to leave our customer car park free for customers.

our council are now bringing in no traffic zones with ANPR. It does mean our staff and customers will need to log their number plates on arrival.

I have real shadenfreude when I see people with parking tickets. I can't stand dickheads who park illegally.

Won’t school let you drop/briefly park in their staff carpark?

That’s what most reasonable schools do for children who require additional help getting to and from.

I'm a childminder and have been doing the 'school runs ' to our local primary school for over 25 years.
I could write a book about what I've witnessed there, I've seen it all,from parents parking on the zebra crossing, to the downright nasty side of it with parents verbally abusing residents .
Over the past few years, it's got worse- people don't give a shit about others,and are very selfish and entitled. I'm actually giving up the school runs next year and this is part of the reason.