What does your primary school do about illegal parking?

[SchoolParkingPests]

I live on a cul-de-sac, far enough away from a primary school that I didn't think parking would be an issue when I bought it, but it is. It is a popular urban primary school with a small catchment area, so the vast majority of the pupils must live within walking distance.

The parents are absolutely feral when it comes to parking. Double yellow lines, making it impossible to safely pull out of the road, and I've even had to get out of my car to direct traffic just so I can reach my own house because it was so congested no one could move.

Normally, I feel I have no alternative but to park across my own driveway to prevent people blocking me in. Yesterday I had to go out in the car, only to see on my CCTV that someone had decided to block in my work van.

I have clear CCTV of their faces, though they managed to park so that their numberplate was obscured. I emailed this to the school, asking them to speak to the individuals involved - I'm sure they must know who they are, they cannot be letting children leave with random unidentified adults. They have refused.

Their solution? We'll put a general note in the newsletter (I'm sure they've done that a hundred times before, so why would it change now?) or I should contact the police, who "might" come out. The police don't visit for burglaries, so fat chance of them turning out for this, the school is just passing the buck onto another organisation that they know will do nothing.

If there was a fire, there would be absolutely no chance of the fire brigade being able to get down the road at school run time. Same thing for a medical emergency - and there are lots of elderly residents on the street.

What do schools normally do about parking? This school seems entirely unwilling to take even the most basic action of speaking to the individuals identified on CCTV.

Whilst I agree this must be a nightmare for you I just don't see what the school can do beyond a polite request to parents. It is absolutely not their place to be telling off adults about their parking on public roads. You could contact your local pcso's, ours come and do patrols at school pick up, they will then speak with people parking inappropriately.

The parking attendants sometimes come out round ours. But otherwise they don't do much. I wish they would.

The school gets the traffic wardens in. Funniest thing to watch.

When mine were at First School apart from emails etc from the school they did have The Police out and the same at a nearby middle school

It can be done

Worth adding of course that if the school wants to do anything that might need planning consent it may be blocked due to parking issues - happened at the lo scout hut next to my parents so they need to try & keep it in order.

We have had that - parents parking in the staff car park. The brass neck of some parents who believe themselves to be soooo important!

I dont understand why traffic wardens aren't proactive with this. Surely they have targets to reach and this is a pretty much guaranteed harvest for them. It could even put them in a more popular light of 'protecting the little uns'.

If i was in charge of traffic wardens, schools would be a regular hunting ground.

If I were in charge of traffic wardens, I'd make an app where people can submit photos of illegal parking. Then have someone in an office check the photos and issue a fine.

Barbara from the Neighbourhood Watch would be all over it. As would I.

Take photo's and submit them to your local Police Team.

Include a description of how you were inconvenienced

They can issue 'points' for parking offences so it can hurt the driver

We have this problem at DC’s school and we’ve had the police out giving parking notices for people parked too close to junctions.

I’m on the fence with the problem though. Where I am no one blocks driveways, partially because the houses nearest the school don’t have driveways but the residents get really shouty if they can’t park on the road. I get it must be annoying but it’s for about 15 min each side of the day and the school has been there for about 20 years so it can’t have been a surprise for anyone moving in. I appreciate that will be a controversial view but if schools are built with no parking then how else are parents supposed to do school runs if they can’t walk?

it’s for about 15 min each side of the day

This is huge if it makes you 15 minutes late to work, hospital appointments or any other appointment because you can't get into / out of your own road.

30 minutes a day of delays to your life, every weekday except holidays, soon adds up.

the school has been there for about 20 years so it can’t have been a surprise for anyone moving in.

As I have found out to my detriment, different primary schools seem to attract different levels of parking chaos.

Where I grew up, and where my mum still lives, it's 150m to the front gate of the local primary school, in a middle class urban area. The school run parking there is a non-issue, and always has been. Home before last I was 130m away from a primary school, and it was a non-issue. At one point I lived 4 doors away from a primary school, and it was a non-issue there too.

Where I live now, I am 300m from the front gate of the local primary school in an area which is demographically very similar (middle class, urban). I'm also on a cul-de-sac which is difficult to turn around on, which you'd think would discourage the school run mums. In reality it's chaos.

So yes, it was a genuine surprise for me.

if schools are built with no parking then how else are parents supposed to do school runs if they can’t walk?

Bearing in mind that I'm talking about an urban primary school with a small catchment area, good public transport links, a city centre you'd be mad to drive into and a parental demographic where many will be WFH, there can be very few practical barriers to walking.

Now, if we are talking about parents (or children) who literally do not have the use of their legs, then I have every sympathy with them (though I would like to introduce them to the lifechanging magic of mobility scooters). But I think we all know that this isn't about parents who can't walk, it's about parents who can't be arsed to walk.

Like you say OP, different schools and different levels of chaos. I’m not convinced it’s always aligned to the demographic, but more with the ability of the surrounding roads to cope. You sound as though you’re speaking from an urban point of view though where it generally is possible to walk. My DC are at a village school 5 miles away, the roads are lethal, single lane and covered in potholes so cycling and walking are both out of the question. I’d love to be able to walk and if it gets me off the naughty step then I do actually park by the shop when I do pick up as it’s 10 min walk away so I stretch my legs and avoid the chaos!

Hey! I know your post was a few weeks ago now but my house is down the road from 2 primary schools and I have had massive issues with cars (particularly taxis) parking over driveways (including mine), driving on the wrong side of the roads, parking on double yellow lines, parking and waiting right on top of pavements so no pedestrians can get past etc. I drop my son off at nursery every morning and getting back home via the last 2 roads is hell. My stress levels every morning are so high from it😂 Anyway! I had an issue with a particular taxi company parking over my driveway so I called up that taxi company, gave them my address, and politely asked them to not do it again which seemed to work. Then I called my local council up about all the taxis illegally driving/parking; they told me there's nothing they can do and that I need to call my county council parking enforcement team up which I did. They sent someone down the next day to monitor/see what's going on which I was super impressed with! Anyway, I wanted to share in case it helps in your case because I completely appreciate how horrendous it is living so close to a school and having to deal with the absolute mayhem of some parents/taxis thinking they are above the law and parking/driving wherever is convenient to them; having no care in the world how that impacts others. Good luck x

I'd be having a full and frank discussion with Taxi Licensing about their refusal to get involved

Get your local councillor involved as well