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?)

So yeah, let's talk about banning 'the work run' huh?

Well it takes me a hour to drive to DSs special school in the morning. Then am I supposed to walk my disabled DS the rest of the way?

Please, people, this one is not Gove, there is enough to throw at him without this.

It was discussed at length on LBC ( I think that is what was tuned in) but on their website it is just talking about the other Gove initiative, fining parents if pupils are disrespectful in school, docking child benefit, etc.

On the news both initiatives were discussed together.

well, I'm a working, single parent, who's morning commute is very finely tuned to get me to work on time. This would throw it out. I simply couldn't get to work on time if I had a half mile walk to the car and back. So well done, Gove, you've just put a full-time (teaching) professional out of work.

So would our council knock down the multi story carpark opposite the school DD is going to from September, or is it just parents of pupils who can't park there.

And is that just Monday to Friday, or are we also banned from our town centre on Saturday, when we help keep the independent shops, farmers market and library going?

Utterly stupid!

We live semi-rurally and are a 5 mile drive from school. We will walk half a mile to the school game, but one boundary fence runs just meters from the main road through town.

What about country schools? My DC's school is on a country road and there are no footpaths. We'd be run over walking miles with a double buggy to get there and back. We'd also have to leave about an hour and a half before school started.

I agree with the idea of not driving if you don't have to.

I don't think LBC would fail to mention it if Gove had really said anything that mind-bogglingly stupid.

I don't drive my children to school, and I live very near to a school. I have a car because I need it for various purposes, and have to park it in the road outside my house for lack of anywhere else. It's there for much of the day during the week as I take public transport to work. What do all the people who support this plan suggest I do with my car if I'm banned from parking it in its usual place during school opening and closing times? I can't park it half a mile away, whichever direction I went it it would still be within half a mile of a school.

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.

PMSL at that image

And the station is less than half a mile away from the nearest school.

And the hospital.

No parking at either of those?!

Utter stupidity!

Ok. I have no choice but to drive to school due to woeful provision in local area. I could not do drop off and pick up and work .... WHAT DO THEY WANT FROM US!!

We've always walked to school.

Did us no harm.

Why thank you Osmiornica and like some of the others on here, to walk from our village to the next town means walking about a mile and a half along a 40 limit a road with a thin path on one side then about 2 miles along a 60 limit with no path and just a grass verge but is public transport provided? no - because there aren't enough kids to warrant it apparently

Just one more stupid comment from the idiot.
The only reason I drive my child to school is because we couldn't get into the local school, the LEA sent our DS to a school 4miles away. Only accessible from our village via extremely busy A roads, not walkable or cyclable especially with children.
I would happily walk to our local school which is just up the road (even though I have mobility issues due to disability) but I have to drive him as it is the only reasonable option. The only other option is a LA provided taxi which I didn't feel was suitable for a 5yo.
So he wants to penalise us for something completely out of our control, sounds pretty stupid & unreasonable - typical Gove daftness

I suggest Mr Gove comes down to rural Somerset, DS's secondary is 12 miles away, but during the floods I had to drive 26 miles to get him there! That would mean when it floods again he will have to do the equivalent of two marathons a day!!

If he goes through with this rule (which would personally welcome) he will be responsible for the Tories losing the next GE.

Is anyone listening? This wasn't Gove!

It was another and lesser tosser.

Nobody's listening, Andrew, they're enjoying themselves too much.
I'm giving up.

THIS IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN

Either LBC or the OP have their wires crossed, today Gove made a speech to the right-wing think-tank that he helped to set up,including this

"We need to ensure that those parents who don’t play their part in ensuring their children attend school, ready to learn and showing respect for their teacher, face up to their responsibilities. We will, later this year, be outlining detailed proposals to ensure parents play their full part in guaranteeing good behaviour and outlining stronger sanctions for those who don’t."

This is what Gove is actually proposing and to me, it sounds a lot more serious and draconian than imaginary regulations about school parking.

Me too diddle

I do think the government needs to do something about the school run. It seems really dangerous at our school and I don't think we're particularly unusual for a city school. I walk my kids and it is horrifying how bad the roads are. It isn't just the appaling driving of a tiny minority of drivers, it's the sheer volume.

But putting in parking restrictions doesn't really solve the problem. The only way to solve the current situation is to take parents out of the picture entirely. We don't need them parking half a mile instead of 50 yds away. We need them not going to school at all. We need a cultural shift to having the vast majority of school children walking to school on their own. Which does happen else where without children suffering. It's only when parents aren't needed that we'll be able to get away from the need for cars.

To be fair, it sounds no more unlikely or unreasonable than docking child benefit if a pupil is disrespectful to a teacher.

so I can't park anywhere in the small town my DDs go to secondary in. Despite the fact that there are several carparks and I might want to go to the shop, bank, or library before or after dealing with children.

Like wise, I couldn't have parked in the village DDs primary is in.

The local farmers are going to love the approaching narrow lanes clogged up with cars.

The only parking in that village is up by school. The lack of a village car park is a very very very very very very long saga.

I live in central London - loads of parents drive tiny distances often in huge 4x4s on jam packed roads and wouldn't think of taking a bus or walking.

If they didn't drive then the roads would be much clearer for cyclists, those with long travel distances, disabilities, multiple drop offs etc School are trying to push car shares and school buses but people don't seem to want the inconvenience associated with this. We walk but then live a mile away and are fit and mobile.

The problem with all these schemes is that while it may be appropriate for a proportion there will be a significant minority for whom it will not work and there need to be built in plans to cover this - it should never be a one size fits all.