Parking at new house

[catlady1234]

Hi,

We are in the process of buying a new house.
The house is opposite a primary school. I have some concerns about the parking,

The road has access time restrictions during pick up and drop off times (with signs & cameras) How can I check if they are being enforced? Iv noticed lots of cars driving down the road during the restricted times.

Also the house has a drive and dropped curb. Most of the neighbours don't have drives. When passing iv noticed people parking completely across the drive. How can I find out if this is a big problem? Can I find out if current resident has had to make a lot of official complaints (calls to council etc)

I'm worried it's going to cause of a lot of problems.

Thanks

I live opposite a primary with no drive, only on road parking. It is a night mare at the end of the school day but it’s 15 minutes and it’s all over. I usually just avoid arriving home at that time. We’ve been here over a year now and it’s not as annoying as I thought it would be but it really depends what times your comings and goings are.

@SnarkyBag engines running the whole time too 🤷‍♀️🙈🙄

Every time I drop my daughter off at school (on foot) I feel sorry for the schmucks who live on the streets around it.

The road by my son's school is a joke at pick up and drop off. Parents ignore the parking restrictions, they park on the paths, they block the roads, they block people's drives. The headteacher is out there twice a day telling people to move.
When I used to work nights I'd drive the long way round to get home to avoid the roads near the school because they are all impassable.
Absolutely selfish buggers the lot of them. And its people like my neighbour who will load up her one child in her 4x4 and drive 2 streets to the school and drive home again.

I would go there at drop off/pick up times and see exactly what it's like

This is a bit like buying a house near a church and then saying the sound of the bells is a problem

You knew the school was there

DM has a friend who lives near a school. She once confronted a parent who had parked on her FRONT LAWN.

The parent had the cheek to respond "I usually park on your drive but there's a car there today".

We live near a school, but not opposite and no enforceable restrictions apart from the yellow zig zags.

The 30 mins at each end of the day are chaos. People, kids, toddlers l, dogs and scooters all over the place including in the road and running out unexpectedly. Turn in our drive all the time. Would parn across it occasionally whe no where else. Had a fence knocked over. For anything big (washing machine etc) that may come in a lorry I make sure that I put in delivery notes or send email I will ask them not to come 8.30 -9 and 3 -3.30. The school has a staggered start time so is constant for the whole 30mind time.

I've contacted school, council etc but nothing much changes. I just think I bought the house after the school was there so i knew what it'd be like I cannot moan too much!

We bought a house in January, last house on the road before you enter the school gates.
We are on the turning circle and the restricted yellows.

We’ve been here 9 months and can honestly say we’ve had very little problems. Someone has parked marginally across our drive once.

The school is relatively small, only 121 pupils from nursery to year 4. I would say 75% of the families walk to school so there is little traffic.

When we looked at the house we asked the sellers and they were very honest so I think we hit lucky.

If you have any reservations though I would say pull out because the last thing you want is to constantly be living in regret.

you won't be able to do anything about your Drive police will say it a civil matter. there's a reason you can afford it onone else wants the stress

Glad you got the answered you wanted. I would add that even though there is fines for parking on zigzags or double parking or completely obstructing the road, they still do it at our school. Even when traffic wardens are present they still do it and just tell them they won’t be long.

So hopefully they are automatic fines. I’d suggest looking on local Facebook groups and see if people mention being actually fined.

People aren't annoyed because it's busy, they are annoyed because of the inconsiderate and illegal parking that goes on.

OP to try to answer your actual question you could do a FOI request to the local council to ask how many fines were issued over a set period, for that road. That should tell you whether or not the cameras are actually active.

You will 100% be pissed off daily by one or more of the following
Parking across your drive
Parking on your drive
Parents standing chatting in front of your drive for ages after drop off
Extra litter
Dog shit
Driving down your road at anytime near 9am and 3pm.
I say that as someone who lived in a flat (within a house, that had a driveway for two cars) directly next to where the yellow school zig zag lines ended.
We moved.

We have to drive to our DDs primary school and I definitely wouldn’t want to live close by. I don’t see anyone parking across drives but just that many people coming to one place at the same time is a lot. We park a road away where it’s quieter and walk round but even then every spot is taken.

The main residential road that leads to the school is horrific for parking and traffic.

FWIW, I live next door to a primary school. Admittedly it's a very small school with few parents, but the street does get parked up, and still, 99% of the time people don't park across my dropped kerb (and 90% of the time they'll also leave the space outside my door free too, as that's where I usually park.

The thing I find more annoying is the tiny minority of dicks who sit with their engines running for ages. But dicks will be dicks.

My concern mainly comes from the unknown of the reality.

The council website I was shown on Mumsnet confirms its a pedestrian area during school pick up/ drop off so I'm happy about that. It's controlled by license plate recognition cameras.

Im sure it will be carnage but all the other houses in our budget would be smaller/ smaller garden/ no drive. So this is our compromise.

Im going to try see the positives- that we'l live opposite a facility that our family can use for school when older/ exercise classes in the evenings/ summer camps/ swimming lessons etc.