School parking (with diagram because I know that's important) WWYD?

[Goldmandra]

I am unlucky enough to have working hours that mean I'm driving through school parking every morning and afternoon.

I'm getting increasingly concerned about the way parents are parking in the junction where I turn right every morning and left every afternoon.

The residents whose driveways are getting blocked every day complain regularly to the school but that isn't really my concern.

I'm more worried about the visibility around the junction and the fact that I've had two toddlers on separate occasions run across the road in front of me. I crawl around the corner every time which is probably the only reason those toddlers are uninjured.

I've called the council to ask if they can get a traffic warden out to put the wind up the parents a bit but they said they will only come out if people are parking on double yellows. There are none on this road.

The Highway Code says you should not park opposite or within ten metres of a junction.

My art skills aren't the best so the cars are probably not in the right proportion to the road. The parked cars make it impossible for two cars travelling in opposite directions to pass. In some places there is only just one car's width to squeeze through.

All the cars are marked with a c and the drives are marked with a D.

I particularly love the two parents who park on the pavement, obviously because that's slightly more considerate than totally blocking the junction.

Is there any point in my trying to get the police to come out and address this? I get that they're busy but a small child is likely to be hit/killed soon.

I've put an arrow on the diagram to show the pavement everyone uses to walk to the school entrance. There isn't a pavement on the other side of the road where most cars are parked. Children are running backwards and forwards across the road, getting in and out of cars constantly during this part of the day.

The most irritating thing is that the parents could park safely in a large, free carpark which the same distance away from school as this junction is. It makes no sense!

Would you bother the police with this? Is there any point in complaining to the school?

Don't recommend the Facebook approach - if your group is anything like ours it just turns into a slanging match and doesn't change any behaviour.

Whether the police will get involved depends whether you have decriminalised parking. You can probably find out by googling the name of your council and the phrase. If it's decriminalised then parking offences are only dealt with by traffic warden types and the police won't touch it except in very limited circumstances - in that instance you could try contacting the council, as they might be able to send the traffic wardens out If your council hasn't turned to the dark side(?) then the police may well come and have a high visibility presence if enough people complain. we had the police out to our school to try and address the parking but I have to be honest it made practically no difference

Goldmandra

Yep on wet days all roads will be a complete stand still because no one will let any one in or out of the junction. They just sit their tooting their horns like it's going to magically make every one else disappear.

Yes you can tell when either the police or the cctv car is around as every one parks correctly and drivers give way to each other.

The joke of it is that most people who go to my DC school probably live with in a 10 min walk away.

The other school not so much as it the Catholic school our side of town so they live further away.

Complain to the school and the the PCSO. It's exactly like this round our school. Periodically the PCSO appears and clamps down and it gets better for a bit then goes back to the same again. Frustrating but doesn't mean you/we should give up on trying to get it stopped.