Stuck in the middle school parking dispute

[KANNET]

So. We walk to school, as do many children who go to our school, I would estimate about 75% ish do. It's a tiny catchment area.

The school is also in an area surrounded by old houses with almost no parking.

The people in the surrounding Streets have been complaining to the school about parents parking on the roads surrounding the school. The school have sent several emails asking parents to be considerate with Parking.

The local residents have decided this is not good enough so loads of them have started leaving their bins out to block the road.

I absolutely get both sides, some parents need to drive to school and there is very little parking, but it's annoying have school cars block up the road.

However those of us who walk are now really struggling, we are having to try and move round parked cars and bins, especially hard for anyone with a pram, I don't even know how anyone in a wheelchair would manage at all. Lots of us end up having to walk in the road, this is asking for an accident.

I honestly don't know what the answer is but it's so annoying.

The school say they are speaking to the residents to try and find a solution but I honestly don't know what they can do.

If parents are legally parked then quite honestly it's tough shit for the residents. If someone left their wheelie bin in the road and I was legally allowed to park there, I'd just move it back onto the pavement. In fact, I have done this.

there will always be a hardcore group of parents who think the rules should not apply to them. (I do wonder why anyone would live by a school and think this wouldn't be an issue). And for every parent who will "only be 2 minutes" - they are the 23rd person that week who said the same thing.

Are we talking about the parents who block driveways, park on double yellows and zig-zag white lines etc. or those legally using appropriate spaces on the public road that the residents believe should be for thier use only, just by virtue of the fact that their houses are closer to that bit of public road than are the houses of the families using them?

The residents are leaving them on the pavements, but they are very narrow so make it almost impossible to pass.

Not sure why there isn't residents parking. That would seem the simple solution.

It's public parking on the road. Almost no off road parking (couple of houses either end).

If the council granted residents only parking it would actually make the houses worth more. Can only assume they have asked and been denied for some reason. Will see what I can find out about this

All the parents want a solution. As I said the majority actually walk anyway

I wonder if the bins are on the pavement to stop cars parking half on and half off, which they shouldn't be doing anyway.

What Bozzle said, except it's Kiss and Drop (better that the child gets kissed before they get dropped). I was astounded when I moved back to the US after DS did a year of nursery at our local state primary in London and discovered that Kiss and Drop was the norm at every primary in the US. In London our Primary was too far to walk and ds has a disease and couldn't have walked a shorter distance anyway. Parking was a nightmare. Everyone whined and no one did anything.

There was a private Japanese school across the street from our house and they had a Kiss and Drop "staffed" mostly by volunteer parents. It worked perfectly and even though we were across the street, we rarely had issues with parents' parking. I kept suggesting to DS's school that they organize such a thing, but they seemed to think that it was a very outlandish thing that only "the Japanese would do." So I was surprised to find it was the norm at all schools in the US when I got back to the US.

I really don't understand why it couldn't be organized in the UK. There are always a few eager parents who like to volunteer and it really only takes 2 parents and a whole load of orange traffic cones. One parent opens the car door and helps the child out and one escorts them into the school gates.

Why are they making it more difficult for the pedestrians?

@Nicketynac

Why are they making it more difficult for the pedestrians?

To try and get the school to do something. They are punishing the people walking to school, which is weirdly what they want everyone to do

I feel sorry for any resident whose houses were there before the school was (even though the school will benefit hundreds of people in the community and not just their own household), but for those who bought the houses, knowing full well that there was a school there, I have no sympathy at all.

They're like those people who happily save themselves a big chunk of cash by choosing to live under the Heathrow flight path - and then complain about the noise.

Ironically, there will be people who gladly bought their houses because they were so handy for the school, when their own children were young; but now that their kids are all grown up, they bitterly resent the next generations of children and their parents wanting to use the school - and complain about parents parking legally and excited schoolchildren making noise at playtime.

I imagine they're aiming it at the parents parking down the road, then walking the last few hundred yards or so along the pavement. But it's very unfair on OP.

Op this is dangerous for walking parents & any other pedestrians
Take photos with digital camera (that shows date don't i phones et al do this to? ) & send to council I imagine it would be highways or rubbish collections (prior to this step you could write a letter as an interested pedestrian warning them that you will be forced to do this & suggesting they contact council to do a pp posters suggest?)
I remember once watching an impatient resident trying to get back home mount a pavement & go at speed along it & narrowly missing a mum with pram, because they didn't want to wait for car driving parents to sort out their morning traffic jam. Thank fully no one was hit & we & my brood had already crossed road.

Complain to the council. They chose to live near a school, they shouldn't be blocking paths.

I feel sorry for any resident whose houses were there before the school was (even though the school will benefit hundreds of people in the community and not just their own household), but for those who bought the houses, knowing full well that there was a school there, I have no sympathy at all.

I agree to a point. I don't object to the road being busy morning and afternoon or to staff and parents parking considerately on the street, as you say, to be expected. The plus side is that the road is deserted evenings and weekends when I'm at home. However, I do object to not being able to get off my drive at 7:30am because of breakfast club parents being in a hurry and blocking my drive to save themselves a few minutes. That wasn't a thing when I bought the house, likewise the staggered starts now, which mean the usual main 15 mins of disruption is more than an hour.

I’d move the bins into the road I think. What utter dicks to block the pavements.

Why shouldn’t those parents who need to drive park on the road? As long as they’re parking legally and not blocking anyone’s drive then it’s tough. Don’t buy a house next to a school to save yourself 50k then complain. Of course, anyone parking illegally should be ticketed!

they dont own the road
if they were that concerned they would turn their front gardens into parking areas
that is so annoying and not allowed.

Steal their bins

what is the point of putting bins on the pavement? what good does tha do?

fuckers

Maybe the bins on pavements are to stop people from partially parking on pavements, which happens when roads are narrow. We live near a school and have a grass verge outside our homes. The majority of us have very large painted white stones placed on the verge to stop people parking on the verge, which solves a lot of issues. We don’t have a problem with people parking on the road generally, as there are no restrictions, but I object to people parking across the bottom of my drive, and the large stones mostly stop that happening.

I’m probably missing the point of the whole thread here, but I don’t see how this is even an issue. If residents are at home to be annoyed at the parking, then surely their cars have been parked there all night, so there would be no space for parents to park??? And if residents cars aren’t there because they’ve already left for work, then the parents parking there for 20 mins or so shouldn’t affect them 🤷🏻‍♀️ I don’t understand logistically how this has become a problem?

@daisydalrymple

I’m probably missing the point of the whole thread here, but I don’t see how this is even an issue. If residents are at home to be annoyed at the parking, then surely their cars have been parked there all night, so there would be no space for parents to park??? And if residents cars aren’t there because they’ve already left for work, then the parents parking there for 20 mins or so shouldn’t affect them 🤷🏻‍♀️ I don’t understand logistically how this has become a problem?

Its been simmering for years (so I have been told) but the staggered drop offs and collection have just tipped people over the edge. Early drop offs for breakfast clubs are probably making it worse

What the residents' problem? If their car is still parked between 8.30 - 9.10 then how does it even affect then? School kicking out time would be an unusual time for someone to come home from work do why is it a problem? Are they just being annoyed for the sake of it?

Before our local primary found a solution, similar to the kiss and drop described above, the problem was the minority of parents who spoiled it for everyone else by parking illegally, blocking people in, parking dangerously close to the corner etc.