a school run parking aibu

[FlappertyFlippers]

Parking spaces near to dds school are few and taken quickly. People resort to parking across driveways, on the pavement, on double yellows, and today even on the zig zag lines. It's now got to the stage where I can't do the 2 minute walk to school without having to walk part of it on the road as my pram can't squeeze past the cars mounting the pavement.

The school puts a polite note in each newsletter but it just gets ignored.

Wibu to phone the council and ask beg them to send a traffic warden round to patrol the area every morning? Either to act as a visual deterrent or to fine people till they learn not to park illegally?

It's worth a try. There's a similar problem at our school, there is a parking warden there every so often now and a lovely neat line of yellow tickets on windscreens along the road. It's certainly not every day, but it has helped a bit.

Our school gets a PCSO to do an occasional patrol and give a hard stare to the twattish tits who think they own the road.

It stops the dangerous or prohibited parking for a week or so then they start it again.

It's worth a try. But if it's anything like our school, the traffic wardens deter twattish parking for about 2 days then everything goes back to normal. The roads around most primary schools are like this according to our council and wardens/PCSOs can't be everywhere at once.

It is very very annoying I agree. The roads outside DDs school are so congested at pick up and drop off that it's nuts. I've had 3 emails from the school this term advising of prangs outside the school. I wouldn't park there if you paid me!

But if I phone the council and explain that they would make a bloody fortune in fines would that tempt them to send someone along?

Could you take photos on your mobile phone and go to the police station with them...

Is that accepted as evidence?

The police are unlikely to be interested.

Your best bet is to make a big fuss with the council. Roping in the local newspaper will help publicise it too.

Write some notes to leave on windscreens.

'You have parked illegally, I have taken a photo of your car including your registration and will send it to the police.'

Send the photos to school and to the police. Ask school to quote the registration numbers in their news letter.

Is it a very big school? Do you know whose cars they are? I'd be given out a list of names if it were me, with a polite but embarrassing message.

I'm not sure if the police would be interested,although I'm pretty certain that parking on zig zags can get you a fine and an automatic 3 points on your licence.

I like the idea of leaving notes on the cars - although they may be less polite than anotherday template

There is another thread about this on AIBU.

They have decided that hard to remove stickers saying 'don't park like a twat' would work..

Yanbu. The amount of school parking threads I see I'm here I'm shocked that they don't employ more parking wardens to hang around. They could probably earn their years salary in one day from what iv heard
I am dreading the school run. I have another 3 years yet but am dreading it already! I need to make sure I don't develop lazyitis between now and then and make the 15 min walk every day instead of driving like most of my neighbours do

I started a thread last month with the same moaning. it's common everywhere it seems. people park terribly and it puts the lives of others in danger. deffo call

YANBU.
This is a common problem. So, I assume councils don't bother to do much about it.

This is my pet hate, how many parents or children in one school could be physically unable to walk beyond the actual street of a school, it fucks me off that its so unsafe just to cross the street of a school I collect from because everything is on the pavement right outside the gate.
Children need to move their own legs, just because someone lives too far away to walk all the way to school doesn't mean they couldn't walk maybe 10 mins or so to their cars.
Makes me boil up its preciousness to me that all the special cherubs shouldn't be inconvenienced at all.

Borrow an old push-chair and squeeze along the pavement scraping the cars as you go.

It really pisses me off too. I know some parents go to work straight after drop off or their kids have additional needs which means they can't walk. But this doesn't excuse parking like twats! I don't understand it. If you park right outside our school across a driveway then yes you only have to walk a few steps to the playground. But when you get back in your car you have to negotiate an obstacle course of double parked cars, small children on scooters and a bus coming along every 2 minutes forcing you to reverse. I couldn't handle that kind of needless stress every day. On the rare ocassions I take the car we park 5 minutes away and walk from there.

Neighbours on our street are now looking into getting double yellow lines. The council have written back explaining the options (eg between certain hours or all the time etc). It will bunch up elsewhere, so a big degree of NIMBYism, but on the plus side it will be safe near the school.

And BTW parking with two wheels on the grass is not an acceptable alternative for the big SUV in London. How would they fancy someone doing it outside their own house?

How many of the cars belong to parents as opposed to people working at the school, OP? In my experience, very few schools have adequate staff and visitor parking and many of the neighbourhood problems are down to/ exaggerated by their cars and not those of parents.

YWNBU. Bad parking by lazy parents infuriates me. DD's school has a staff car park with enough space for all of them so the issues with parking on the street are definitely parents. There is a large and free car park attached to the village hall three minutes walk away which parents can use and we still get idiots parking on double yellow and zigzag lines.

Get on gumtree, buy a cheap old tank of a pushchair and just walk to school regardless of parking muppetry.

Is there an easy way to set car alarms off? A firm nudge to the offenders as you trundle along?

It's definitely the parents round our way.

Our school used to publish offending reg nos but were told they had to stop as broke data protection rules.

We have just had double yellows put on corners near school - highway code meant they shouldn't park there anyway but it has stopped people enough that we can now see to cross the road.

Data protection? Alimonkey, I'm no expert but how can publishing a reg number be anything to do with data protection.

Isn't that to do with personal data being held by organisations, unless they were also naming and shaming how does that apply I wonder.

Everyday in my local facebook groups there are photos of bad drivers and selfish parkers and I've never seen anyone mention data protection

Enforcement for this is really a police issue as it's classed as obstructing the highway, this includes the footway too. The trouble is that the Police will rarely want to have to go and enforce a road due to manpower being taken up.

I'd certainly mention this to your councils Highways department but really if a vehicle is obstructing then call 101. I wouldn't hold much hope of a simple resolution though unfortunately.

Our school is pretty good. People park considerately and are careful while doing so. Occasionally, towards the end of term people take the piss and start parking on the zig zags or the lay-by which is reserved for school taxis and those with a permit (children/parents with disabilities or SN can park there). If it starts to creep in as a behaviour, in the first instance the school caretaker and sometimes the head come out and have a word. The lollipop man will also step in if he's able to. This is usually enough. If it isn't, a PCSO comes out and manages the situation. It's always the same parents who break the rules tbh.