Parking for the school run

[LublieAva]

More a question than a AIBU... do schools have the right (legal or moral) to tell parents that they may not park in public parking bays on a public street when coming to the school for drop off and pickup?

If you think they do have that right, then why when we are private citizens who pay our council tax and road tax?

The day in day out clogging up of the roads, that's what I find rude. But it's mainly a bugbear in my area because they linger for far too long to get the 'best' parking spaces, and many of the parents actually live well within walking distance. Might be different in the OPs area, but like I said, I would bet my life someone has a real reason to be upset here and seems as though the OP isn't particularly concerned about why the HT is requesting this, and just wants a way around it. Which is fair enough btw, she wants convienience, but I can see both sides of this very easily.

Is the street with parking becoming clogged up with traffic ?

BTW 'out-of-bounds' is a common school phrase

If you're aged 8 yes! You some across as a little "institutionalised" :o

Hatwoman - because the shopkeepers want people who actually use the shops to park there so that they can park there and spend their money.

i can really see both sides
parents do arrive at school amazingly early to get a good space... it is not just 5 mins around 3.15 but more like an hour.

with all the difficulties local shops have staying in business i think we owe it to them to leave the limited spaces outside the shops free for shoppers if we can. we are very soon going to have empty highstreets. the one thing they offer is fast convenient service. not very convenient if there is nowhere for their shoppers to park.

but in our case there is more parking five minutes away so we only come to the school just before the doors open.
Maybe the local shop keepers are complaining but the school was there long before any of the shopkeepers were born so aren't their complaints like buying a house next to a motorway and complaining about the noise? It can hardly be a surprise to find that being close to a school means you get caught up the school run.

do you want these shops to close down and be left with empty highstreets
do you know how hard it is for these shops to make any money?
i really think YABU. people complaining about living near a school is totally different, they are just being inconvenienced. shopkeepers NEED shoppers
shoppers generally NEED spaces to park.
the quick-stop spaces are designed for people to use the shops. no it cannot be enforced, but that is why the council have made them limited parking bays. for the shops. for their livelihoods, for the towns and communities they serve.

If there is more parking five minutes away as you say, why not use that parking yourself? That way, you get your parking and you are not bothering the shoppers who need the shop parking?

I love the line from someone "why should residents get more priority over parents"... says it all really. It's the reason I would never ever ever buy a house anywhere near a school - because people are just inconsiderate so and sos.

The thing is - if you class a school day as 9-3 for convenience sake (I know it's usually something slightly different) - from about 8.30 to 9.15, and again from about 2.30 - 3.30 because people show up stupidly early to get good spaces, and stay later for quick chats with the teacher... these businesses have no parking available to them - so they're losing an hour's worth of trade a day. In the economic mess at the moment, they quite probably can't afford for people to drive past thinking "can't get parked there - will just go to generic chain store instead" - if the local high street is anything like ours, it's fighting desperately to stay alive. Do you really want to be living in an area where the local high street is boarded up shops and charity stores only? It doesn't take much to kill an area - the big boys are only too willing to snap up their trade.

The head's made a series of polite requests before having to resort to strong words, the next step will probably be the council/police getting involved and making those spaces permit/pay restricted (for the council aren't going to miss a money making venture). It's probably the bane of his or her life - endless complaints about parking, residents coming in shouting in exasperation at not being able to get out of their houses, irrate local traders etc etc. I've been in schools where the police have had to be involved ticketing people over school parking in the past as things have got to that extent. You can go on a nice one-woman crusade about it kicking and screaming for your convenience - or you could go in and ask calmly and rationally what the situation is.

For what it's worth - our local school has a brilliant parking drop off arrangement - when the local Tesco was built at the bottom of their field, they fitted a gate through into the school grounds and it's requested all parents use that (because there's always a tonne of surplus spaces) and walk around the field to drop off, rather than parking on the road school's on. Tesco get the passing "oh we'll just nip in for milk... pester pester pester" trade, and the local residents don't get to live in a parking war zone.

"It can hardly be a surprise to find that being close to a school means you get caught up the school run."

Unfortunately "the school run" is a phenomenon of the last 20 years as so few children walk to school these days.

Is this a case of 100 parents converging on 8 parking spaces and blocking the whole road for 20 ins, as often happens round schools?

Part of the point is that when the shops were built it's likely that the majority of children walked or cycled to school. My school was miles away - I went by bus, my brothers primary school was about a mile away and he and ALL his friends fom our road walked. I can imagine the parking hell on the village green nowadays, though!

I suspect that the head is rather clumsily asking parent drivers not to act like twats and cause traffic chaos in one small post. She may as well whistle in the wind.

Aye - the answer is get the bus/walk.

No its a case of parents coming from several directions and each stopping at the parking nearest the school that is convenient for them, so there are only a few of us who park there. If you are lucky then you get a space, otherwise you drive on and find one further away. As far as I know no one actually arrives early for a space.

Don't imagine that this high street is full of newsagents, bakeries, butchers, greengrocers etc. Its mostly property companies and a church.

I think of those who are arguing that I should not park there are not saying that I do not have a legal right to use those spaces but are saying that morally I should leave them free in case someone wants to pop into the estate agents?

Actually i own a small business too. God I know what it is like when things are tough and how much you appreciate it when someone gives you a break but I don't phone anyone up to complain when they don't.

Yes, the next step I'm sure will be that the bay will change to ticketed between school run hours.

and 3 restaurants.

They can ticket it if they like, but at least all people will have the same terms of use. right now, its one thing if you want to go to the church or visit the estate agents and another if you want to take your child to school (I think the restaurants are closed at drop off and pick up times)

Oh, the head teacher has no way to compel you and there isn't a moral dimension here. But you shouldn't drive to school anyway,

LubelieAva - You do have the same terms of use now.

TheCoalitionNeedsYou - that's sort of true and sort of not true because as a parent I've been told not to use the space. So, anyone else can just drive up and stop and not expect to be hassled whereas I am aware that I am doing what i was expressly told not to do.

It probably isn't a legal reason but because parents driving in and out of those spaces are causing a traffic problem in the mornings and pissing off the local residents. And potentially causing a risk to walking pupils and their parents.

TheCoalitionNeedsYou - "You should not drive to school anyway"??? Would you also tell me what to feed my children or which TV programmes I may or may not watch or which clotehs i may or may not wear? At what point does an individual deserve to make their own choices?

LublieAva - But you haven't been told not to by anyone with any authority to compel you.

Individuals choices affect other people - driving to school is just a particularly visible instance of this.

I think you are right Thecoalitionneedsyou: I haven't been compelled to do it.
I hope you will agree that by the choice of words there was an attempt to compel me but it seems that it lacked legal authority and I have to assume it lacked any moral authority too, since I have not been offered a reason.

So that just leaves two options (an unrevealed genuine reason or "cheek!").

at my dcs primary school - at the end of a cul de sac - there was a "voluntary" ban on parents driving down the road to the school. this was for the benefit of the residents of the cul de sac.

there were reminders in the weekly newsletter and peer pressure to stop people driving. some still did - there was no legal ban on it as a it's a public highway but most people respected it and walked the extra 2 minutes.

None of their business where you park unless it's on school property or directly affecting them, i.e. across people's drives outside the school etc. They cannot stop you parking in public, non restricted spaces and neither can anyone else, it's madness to think otherwise. It's up to you to park where you want as long as it's legal and you are entitled to park there.