To complain about the ridiculous parking?

[LittleMissGerardPoppyButler]

I live by a school, which is very handy as my kids go there, but the parking is a joke.

This morning there were cars parked on the pavement, completely blocking it, so people had to walk on the road.

I've also had my drive blocked this week.

I'm not a confrontational person, and so I won't approach them, as I've seen how they react when others have, and I don't want my kids to see that behaviour.

The problem is people are parking there and walking to work, the school suggested a while ago that the school and local residents went to the council together and asked for a 2 hour parking restriction to be put on the road. I'm going to flag that up with them. As then if the workers didnt park there, then there's room for parents.

I have sent an email to school this morning to tell them about the parking, in a nice way, I wondered if its also worth mentioning it to anyone else, like the local neighbourhood police?

Aibu to do this, or should I just leave it at that?

Also any advice on what to do about restrictions etc would be great.

Thanks

OP, I would take photos of any offending cars and email the school for some good old name and shaming

My dc old school refused to take responsibility till the school bell rang so you had to wait in playground with them. The school made it clear that leaving them would be a safeguarding issue and would be reported. Home time until year 5 children wouldn't be released from school till the responsible adult was there. No walking home with siblings allowed. So parents had to park up and the parking was and is atrocious. The school was badly placed though on a main road and no pavement in one direction it wasn't safe for children on their own.

Alexa are you in the UK? My kids go to a London primary school with 90 kids in each year. They have to line up in a chaotic playground with 700 other kids to be taken into the classroom and before they even get there they would have to negotiate a London street packed with cars, kids and parents. My 4 year old would have a nervous breakdown if she was expected to do this, not to mention my fear that if there were somebody hanging round to abduct a child they would have an incredibly good opportunity to do it then (though i accept this may be my problem).

Additionally the school will not let a child go without someone they know to pick them up.

Dropping them at the roadside would never, ever, work.

Yeah, I am in the uk.

I don't know, we have a lollipop crossing, so everyone drops their kids off, they make their way to the lollipop crossing, cross the road, and off they go into school.

I'm in the UK too and loads of children walk with siblings. The only parents that take their children in and out are those with nursery pupils.

Once they're in P1, then they can walk home if need be and don't get handed over at the start and end of the day.

I used to live across the road from DS's school and would watch from the window as he walked to the lollipop man, then into the playground. Not an issue.

DD was at a different school and I would leave her at the gate before heading off to work.

Re the parking, the Roads department in the local Council should be able to give advice on engineering solutions to the problems - eg strategically placed bollards, mini islands, etc.

Do children throughout the UK not all start school at the same age then, the Sept after their 4th birthday?

No flowery, not here anyway. My oldest started in the September after his 5th birthday (February birthday so he was 5.7), my youngest was 5.2.

Mine started in August. All the P1s are either 5, or will be 5 by the following February

DS has SN and is quite likely to just wander off. Sorry - I did include that important point in my earlier post but somehow edited it out!

I do trust him to go to the post box on the corner but school mornings are chaotic. I thought children across the UK all started school at the same age ie cut off is end August? Unless your children are at private school maybe?

I believe it's slightly different in Scotland?

kiri I did say before that hardly any parents here walk their children in, very few, and the ones that do are the ones whose children have SN.

I can understand that, much as I can understand not trusting a child who is only 48 months old!

Its bad at our school too, but they have 20minute parking zones, yeah all good and well but the parents sit in their cars from 2:15pm till the gates open at 3:10pm!! Parking enforcement do nothing because there are people in the car. Its the same in the morning gates open at 8:40am, school starts at 8:50am.. Same parents can be seen parked outside from before 8am some days, just so they can get their spot and sit there warm with their engines running.

We walk 40minutes each way to school but some of these little darlings apparently cannot walk from a few streets away

I couldn't imagine sending my 4 year old (I was 4 for a whole year of school as an August baby) out the car and in. But if the school is set up for it and it works than it works. But I know a lot of schools aren't built to accept pupils this way

Dads school doesn't allow the kids to be unaccompanied until Y6, so age 10/11. Parents are expected to take the children into the playground, and the kids make their own way into the classroom. They have free entry into classrooms from 0835 and the bell goes at 0845. At 0850 the electric gates are shut and parents/kids/visitors have to use an intercom and then be escorted in by the office staff.

Parking is OK though. The school is next to a rugby club and we are allowed to use their carpark. That will all change when the school moves though - the plans make it look like there will be no parking whatsoever.

Parking on pavements is what I would bring to the attention of the police and local authority. Alas I do not know if anything can actually be done, as even if they issue penalty notices, some drivers will still park their car where they like.

School can add reminders in the newsletter, local schools to me have done that, they also have put up banners (provided I think by a local Police/Council scheme DriveSmartSurrey), so your local council may have a similar partnership scheme.

It does help but there are still some people who park where they like, blocking driveways, on the pavement as close to the school gate as possible, or on double yellow lines on the school access road.

In our area schools are consulting about expanding, yet provision for parking cars is not taken any notice of in the initial consultation... no plans to buy land for a carpark for example. Maybe in later stages that will happen but should it really be an after-thought, shouldn't it be looked at first... before thinking of expansion?