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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

School parking.....

110 replies

Shirleycantbe · 03/09/2015 16:25

My childrens' school is in a resident parking area in London - at pick up time the bays are Residents only. It's therefore a nightmare for any one to park and people ignore the residents only rule - thus putting themselves at risk of being ticketed by the traffic wardens that roam the streets at that time. The residents also get extremely irate (understandably) that the street is difficult for them to park in between 3pm and 4pm.

Now my question. As I live in the same borough, I have Visitor parking permits I can use that allow me, legally, to park in the street at any time. I have been doing this once a week maximum (my children finish school after restrictions have ended at other times).

The school ask parents not to park in these bays because it annoys the residents. AIBU to park there anyway since I am legally entitled to?

OP posts:

ToesAndFingersCrossed · 04/09/2015 11:47

I live on a street with a primary school on it. I knew this before I bought my house and I don't have any issues with the parents at pick up/drop off times except the ones that seem to turn up at half past two for a three o'clock finish and just sit in their cars reading in residents bays they have no right to be in. They never get ticketed because they are in their cars and move if the wardens come along, but they often don't come by until 3 when the school kicks out. One of my neighbours is very old and usually comes back from seeing her grandchildren at around that time, and has to park her car several streets away and walk back. I suppose no one is technically breaking any rules, but I resent the parents in their massive cars sitting reading for half an hour while a frail wee old lady has to walk home in the rain for 5 minutes.

Collaborate · 04/09/2015 11:55

My street is a cul-de-sac next to a high school entrance. I don't care who parks on it provided they're not either blocking the road or blocking anyone's drive. I want the Highways Agency/ Local Council to repair it when needed. For that, I must allow the rest of the public to use it.

SirChenjin · 04/09/2015 12:07

Lynda - I've already said, she has the 'right' to, but I don't think she should. The residents are obviously fed up to the back teeth - they are just normal people like you and I who are utterly, utterly sick of their daily lives being disrupted by parents who are behaving like twats. So the OP has a visitors permit - excellent. Then she can use it elsewhere in streets which aren't being disrupted in this way. A bit of consideration for others goes a long way.

Collaborate · 04/09/2015 13:43

Why should anyone who parks on a piece of road that happens to be outside my house be called a twat?

I think the real twats are those who think they have the right to deny others the right to lawfully park.

BarbarianMum · 04/09/2015 13:49

Of course you should park there if you can do so legally. The residents can save their ire for people behaving inconsiderately - the OP is not one of them.

The reality is, if you live near a shop/school/business then you will experience a certain level of increased traffic. That's life. For people taking the piss, well that's a matter for the police and traffic wardens.

MythicalKings · 04/09/2015 13:52

The real twats are the selfish idiots who think that just because it's legal it's ok to cause massive inconvenience.

MaidOfStars · 04/09/2015 13:53

Take photographs of the stickers. Make sure at least one of them sees you doing it.

BarbarianMum · 04/09/2015 13:55

When is it legal to cause a massive inconvenience? Are you still talking about parking, or have you moved on to the right to protest or the migrant crisis?

Despondentlyyours · 04/09/2015 14:04

You are parking legally so I would say do it. Its only once a week after all and if you were visiting a friend on that street you wouldn't think twice, the residents need to suck it up really, presumably this school isn't new so they chose to live by it. I say this as someone who lived in London with resident parking bays.

SirChenjin · 04/09/2015 16:22

Collaborate - the OP sets out very clearly the twattish behaviour of the parents that these residents are currently experiencing on a daily basis.

This 'you chose to live next to a school' argument is very poor. Believe it or not, it wasn't that long ago when children walked to school, and believe it not again, there are many residents who have lived in the vicinity of schools before so many parents decided that their children couldn't walk more than the length of themselves.

LyndaNotLinda · 04/09/2015 16:25

People are allowed to park legally for any reason they like SirChenjin. It's not a moral argument.

MythicalKings · 04/09/2015 16:28

But that doesn't mean they aren't selfish twats, though.

anothernumberone · 04/09/2015 16:33

I live in the middle of a town with parking restrictions midweek. During the weekend it is a free for all. I had noticed the house was on the middle of the town when I bought it so tough on me. I am sure the neighbour must have spotted the school when he bought his house. You just have to suck these things up. Yanbu.

XCChamps · 04/09/2015 16:39

What's the point of permits if anyone who lives in the borough can have one and park there?

Around here permits are close to the town centre and station, most of the people who'd like to park there must be resident in the borough. We have different permits for different streets, so you need permit A in some streets and permit B in others etc.

I'm not surprised the residents are frustrated but it sound like the fault lies with the local system rather than those who are parking legally. I expect most of the "offenders" who are making the residents so cross don't have permits though?

SirChenjin · 04/09/2015 21:46

If it's not a moral argument then I'm surprised that the OP felt she even had to ask the question.

XC - same here. Permits are for certain (small) areas of the city.

MidniteScribbler · 05/09/2015 09:48

Whilst it may be legal, it doesn't really seem to be in the spirit of the visitors pass so the OP can do the school run. She's not really visiting someone on that street, which is presumably what the pass was issued for. It reminds me a bit of the woman at our school (thankfully moved on to secondary now) who brought her elderly neighbour on the school run each day because she had a disabled parking space badge so she could park next to the door. The neighbour sat in the car, so she really didn't need the spot, but technically the passenger was the badge holder so was legally entitled to park there. We had other parents who genuinely needed that space, but they had to wait because twatmum would take her leisurely time annoying conferencing with the teachers or playing social club with the other mummies. She then had the gall to get arsey when we gave the other parents who actually needed the space a special pass to use the staff carpark and declared that she should also have the right to park there. Our principal just laughed at her.

SirChenjin · 05/09/2015 14:50

Exactly Midnite.

SoupDragon · 05/09/2015 14:54

I was under the impression that a visitors permit was for your visitors, not when you want to park elsewhere.

LyndaNotLinda · 05/09/2015 17:37

Can anyone explain to me how this differs from residents on a street without respark getting pissed off with school parents parking in their road, as long as they're doing it legally?

JohnCusacksWife · 05/09/2015 17:49

YABU - visitors' permits are to allow people visiting you to park in restricted spaces - not for you to park elsewhere. I suspect you know you're in the wrong or else you wouldn't have asked the question....

GhoulWithADragonTattoo · 06/09/2015 02:03

I think SoupDragon and JohnCussack are both right. The visitors permits are for your visitors not to park your car on someone's road. What are the conditions of use?

headexplodesbodyfreezes · 06/09/2015 02:16

It may well be within the law, depending on the conditions of use, but it isn't within the spirit of the law is it? It isn't what visitors' permits are meant for. Presumably most of the other parents could also obtain visitors permits? If they spot what you are up to and join in, you'll all be back to square one.

I've just checked the conditions of use of mine (not in London) and they say "only for use by visitors to addresses in the zone specified". If this was happening in my street I would probably be suggesting the council added in the word "residential" in front of "properties".

MythicalKings · 06/09/2015 06:47

I get monumentally pissed off, Lynda, because they park up to the very edges of the dropped kerb outside our house and it's a narrow lane so that makes it impossible to get in or out. So we have to ask them to move.
They see us indicating to turn in or trying to get out but pretend not to notice and fiddle with their phones. So we have to get out of the car to ask them to move. Every. single. time.

Not so bad in the morning, when they drop and go, but they start to arrive at 3pm for a 3.30pm finish in order to get "prime position". 300 yards down the lane is a church car park and a layby created when the lane was straightened but they don't want their precious DCs to use their legs. It's a secondary school, btw.

It's a fairly narrow lane and we are on a bend at the top of the hill so it's actually illegal to park outside our part of the lane. They get ticketed on a regular basis but doesn't stop the selfish wankers.

LyndaNotLinda · 06/09/2015 07:04

All that would piss me off as well Mythical. Some of the parent parking outside DS's school is atrocious. But that isn't what the OP is doing. She's parking in a marked bay, displaying the correct permit.

I've just checked the T&Cs for visitor permits in the inner London borough we used to live in. There is nothing about what they can and can't be used for. I used to use my permit to allow me to park when I took DS to classes, got my hair cut, dropped stuff at the dry cleaner. if I'd been in the car to collect DS from school, I dare say I'd have used it to collect him occasionally too.

KathyBeale · 06/09/2015 07:06

People park at 1pm in my road for school pick ups at 3pm. I think if you've got time to sit in the car for that long, you've got time to walk. Our school is massive so the catchment is big but still very rarely over a mile. When I'm mayor of London (one day) I'm going to ban people driving on the school run.

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