Banning the school run

[AElfgifu]

leading on from driving/walking thread, Gove suggests banning driving children to school.

All schools to be double red lined ( not stopping, unloading, pausing at all.)

all roads within half a mile of a school to be resident parking by permit only during school drop off or pick up time.

parents not allowed to park within half a mile of their school.

(Although most roads round here must be within half a mile of a school?)

AElfgifu
I have children with disabilities, so no, I can't. Apart from which, it's not practicable for rural schools. Half a mile away from most local schools here would put you on an A road with no paving etc.

He's crazy! My daughter goes to the only Welsh speaking school in the area. It's a three mile drive each way and I start work at 9.30.

I have to drive, someone needs to burst his bubble!

Double red lines - no parking, dropping off, loading or unloading for 500 yards either side of the school gates would be enough. They would be restricted to no parking for half an hour before school and half an hour spanning school closure.

That would stop the dangerous parking directly outside the school and allow children and parents to cross in safety. Parking on red lines is an automatic fine - a governor with a camera to take photos of the wankers - and fines issues would be great.

It is a ridiculous idea. In many rural areas people have to drive their children to primary school. Making them park half a mile away would achieve nothing apart from inconveniencing people and making it more difficult for them to work.

I'm also not sure how it would work in some of urban areas. Does Gove not realise that primary schools are less than a mile from each other? If you couldn't park within half a mile of a school half the city would be a no parking zone.

So it would appear that Gove is not considering banning the school run. Unless he told OP during a one-to-one chat today.
I hate him as much as the next person, but this isn't helpful. And I've wasted a good 20 minutes reading this thread.

He obviously hasn't considered all the teachers who have to park on roads around schools because of small/non-existent staff car parks!

There are about 15 spaces at our local school, nowhere near enough.

Fishwithabicycle: It was on the radio news several times, Gove's two new initiative, this thing about parking, and the other one saying parents would be fined if their children were disrespectful to school staff.

well, l would love to see it work here. housing estate of about 600 houses, with 2 primary schools. in theory most could walk- i used to. now i drop 1 dd at breakfast club which opens at 8 and not a moment earlier. then i have to get to work 17 miles away by 8.30. so i couldnt do it. and neither can lots of other working parents. and everyone lives within half a mile of the school so would get residents permits.

What about those days when you just 'can't' walk (even 1/2 mile)- heavily pregnant or having morning sickness, the flu, child had a late night for some reason. Millions of reasons you might take the car in out of the blue.

Do many people really drive if it's less than half a mile? - that's about 10 minutes walk for an able bodied child.

OK, just read the thread and there are obviously loads of exceptions and valid reasons why people need to drive. Sorry.

working mums are a bunch of selfish, illegal driving and parking cunts.

And there I was thinking I was simply providing for my family...

"Do many people really drive if it's less than half a mile? - that's about 10 minutes walk for an able bodied child."

Yes if they are going to work afterward/have more than one drop off etc etc.

X-post miffy, sorry!

"working mums are a bunch of selfish, illegal driving and parking cunts."

What are working dads, then?

What are working dads, then?

Breadwinners? Providers?

I agree with the PP who said this is a very London centric policy.
The village I grew up in doesn't really go more than a 1/2 mile in any direction. Parents would have to stop on an A road, scramble up the bank and throw their children over a barbed wire fence into a field. All the wee people would have to yomp past assorted livestock to the nearest pavement and the parent would have to scuttle back to the car before it caused an accident.
Also all the amenties (shop, post office, doctor, pharmacy, police station) are all in the same street and half the population live outside the village centre on farms and what not. This policy could mean that any of those people wouldn't be able to see the doctor, buy a paper, post a parcel etc during drop off and pick up times.

The school my son goes to is quite rural, 1/2 a mile around it is either a 40mph commuter road or country lanes, no parking except in the pub car park opposite and the few roads around the school itself.

I drive because I have to drop my son at school and turn around and be at work within 10 mins. Due to the location of the school (it is our catchment) it takes 5 mins to drive but at least 20-30 mins to walk. If I didn't have to commute to work and back either side of the school run i'd probably walk it sometimes.

More of a problem at our school seem to be the parents who park over residents driveways and ignore the schools requests to not block other parents in in the school car park rather than use the usually empty pub car park over the road.

Can you remember what radio station you heard this on OP? They seem to have a massive scoop as this doesn't appear anywhere on the internet except this thread.

No child over the age of 8 that lives within 2 miles of the school should have to be driven to school. They can walk. It's good for them.

No children at all? Including disabled children?

Then gove can go f*ck himself - if he wants us to walk then he should keep the bloody local schools open, I used to walk to my kids last school but the kids from that school now have to go to another school, in another town because our local school was shut down. I'm not walking to the next town in the pissing rain with 4 kids for no one

That man is a pillock!

DS2(17) goes to college 7 miles away. I choose to drive him because between the HT and the council they couldn't sort out the start time and the buses when they moved the location of the college. The 'temporary' and unreliable service they put in place 3, almost 4 years ago, is still going and I'm not losing £400 again like I did with DS1!

I don't see how this can be done. How can they say to people " you live within half a mile of a school you can not have a visitor, a delivery, an online shop, etc at 8:30-9:30, and 3:00-4:00?" It's madness!

Am waiting for the interview in the telegraph where Gove explains that he never ever said he was going to do this and it's all been blown out of proportion....

Until that happens, though, yes of course this is stupid. And worrying, because it seems so totally unaware that many people aren't 'driving their children to school' and then cruising home to the housework. The 'school run' is, in many cases, a brief drop off on a drive to work.