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

I do think a lot of parents are worried about getting wet because there are always a lot more cars when it rains.

It varies by school but actually works very well for drop off, pick up can be more annoying as some parents get there very early to be at the front of the queue and takes a while for pick up.

But as a drop off it’s a smooth easy process - no need to find a place to park, get both of you out of the car etc. Great in bad weather.

But the schools also have huge car parks on site as well so if you needed to go into the school for some reason it’s very easy to park in the school grounds.

Space in the UK for older schools isn’t going to allow for big onsite car parks but the kiss and drop off system could work.

But it’s not feasible for many schools because there’s no spare land.

Our school has been on its site for 160 years with frontage to one road. There’s limited parking on the road outside and double yellows for safety. A local business allows parents to use their fairly large car park but few use it as it means a 5 minute walk each way.

Short of opening the playground and turning it over to parking twice a day, where exactly can they magic up spare land from for 50 odd cars at a time?

Sounds awful

Parking near schools is not safe for many, hence the implementation of 'school streets' which dont allow any cars, gender does not come into it

I’m in the US - many of our schools have no walkable access so most schools have a ‘kiss and drop off’ system where you drive in a queued system round the car park and stop at the front where your kid gets out of the car without the parents getting out and then you just drive off.

For primary age they have a member of staff at the drop off point to help the little ones out of their seat etc.

Our village has a massive car park (it's attached to the community centre), a 5 minute walk away from the main entrance to the school yet it is completely empty in the morning, whilst the road right next to the school entrance is completely jammed with cars double parked, parked on bends and even across the zebra crossing. I honestly think that even if spaces were available nearby, some parents would still risk their child's life to save an extra few minute. The school run really brings out the worst in some people.

At our school there is a carpark which is about a 3 minute walk from the back gate of the school. Men and women still park like twats out the front on the zigzags and double yellows. Even worse when it rains, they park across the dropped kerb crossing.

Even with safe and convenient alternatives people are still idiots because they think they’re so important they need to save that extra 30 seconds and it doesn’t matter if they put anyone in danger doing that.

I agree new schools or extended schools should have a parking plan (that doesn't include parking in residents only zone). But many schools are in already located on narrow roads.

Saying that... our Secondary regularly sends our reminders about the car park that can be used by parents. Still parents park in the bus bay.

Good!

And no, I really don’t think we should be wasting public funds on carparks for people who don’t want to adequately organise their lives.

It used to be chaos outside our sons old school, people driving on pavements while children were walking along them, completely halting the flow of traffic etc. They once prevented an ambulance being able to access the school. Virtually all the roads around were permit only, so I was very pleased when the road school was on became a school street.

I have zero sympathy I’m afraid.

I only drive to school a handful of times a year as it’s too stressful to drive. I have to be parked at least 45 minutes before school finishes which is crazy. I had to drive for pick up one day last week as I needed to get home quickly for a meeting. I was clearly in someone’s “space” as she pulled up and death stared me shaking her head and proceeded to park right on a bend with double yellows.

The absolute state I see of some of the parked cars around school begs belief. God forbid little Tilly has to walk a few steps poor lamb 🙄

I think part of the issue is more and more schools (in Scotland at least) are being combined into one campus rather than the local primaries and high schools that had a couple of miles of walkable catchment area.

They can't possibly provide parking for everyone that needs it, the councils don't join up the dots. We have a new school campus and the council refused a one-way road system through the residential area because it would add too many "local miles" onto journeys, so now there's bottlenecks every morning as the buses try and turn into and out of the road, as cars try and turn right and left into the same road). And the poor lollipop wardens spend an hour running across between junctions and trying not to hold up too many cars at a time and make the whole thing worse.

But I agree that people who park like twats should not be exempt from the rules of the road.

I agree, but I can imagine all the pitiful "sad face" photographs in the local paper/Facebook pages, clutching the letter containing the fine!

There are plenty of ways to get children to school safely. But too many parents decide that’s not for them and put other children at risk as a result!

They're not being demonised and no one is forcing them to break the law

How ridiculous

Lol. I do park legally thanks. Think you've missed the point though. I never said it was ok to park illegally. I said that as a society we do not place any priority on getting kids to school safely by ensuring that parents have safe, legal, easily accessible points for drop off and pick up. And part of that is a general lack of value for children and the people caring for children in our society.

Yes, well done to this council. These car-driving sewer rats deserve far heavier fines, in my opinion.

Well done Leicester for fining the selfish fuckers whose precious offspring won't walk the length of themselves.

Wish our council would do the same.

Parking in restricted zones near schools isn’t safe, that’s the whole point.

I don’t care if it’s an alien from outer space doing the school run. You still park legally and safely!

Oh naff off, this isn't a gender thing, if Mumsnet is anything it's proof that both men and women can be dickheads. And parking on double yellows or zigzags outside a school makes you a dickhead. It's not only inconsiderate and lazy, it's dangerous.

Park legally while you "shepherd" your kids or pay the consequences, it's not complicated.