To think there's not much else we can do and they should be more understsnding

[Hurr1cane]

So DS goes to a special school. Most of the children there get school transport but about 5 children don't and we transport them ourselves, from very far away. My own school run is over 30 miles a day.

Anyway the school is currently having a lot of work done and the parent car park is full of building materials so we can't use it. The other car park is for the school buses, so we have to park on the street next to the school.

The street is made up of massive houses with massive drives. The drives can fit 3 or 4 cars in, there are no other 'adjoining' streets as at the end is a busy main road with no parking.

The first day was fine. Everyone was in their drives so there was plenty of parking spaces on the street, not blocking anyone's drives.

The next day, the residents started to park their cars on the street instead of their drives, there was less spaces but there was still enough for 4 cars. The street is very long. So it was fine.

The third day, all the residents seem to have parked on the street. All the drives were empty and they were all stood in their gardens watching, a few spaces there were now cones in. So there was about 2 spaces. I got there early so managed to park. Rushed DS in and another parent was sat in their car and took my space as I rushed off.

Since then it's just got worse and worse. Now parents are blocking the end of the street waiting for a space or parking on the single yellows using their blue badges (which the council confirmed was fine) and being told they can't park there by residents as they're trying to get their children out and into school. No one blocks anyone's drive, ever, there are only a few of us and none of us would ever do something like that.

This is making the school run really stressful and hard work. It's not as though we're being lazy, one our children are disabled and can't be safely walked far to school (my DS has almost been run over once already just crossing one quiet street) and two, most of us live over half an hour drive away.

This situation isn't perminant, it's only for a couple of months until the car park can be cleared of building equipment.

I don't know what the purpose of this thread is other than to rant but it's really getting me down. The school run is stressful as it is. As is life in general at the moment. I wish I could take him to a local school and walk him there like the majority of people but I just can't.

It's probably stressful for them too I know so I'm probably being unreasonable.

What utter cunts.

This would make me furious, so selfish of the residents.
Agree with pp's. Could you take some photo's of the cars parked on the road, and go back out of school hours or at a weekend, and get more photo's of the same cars now parked on their drives. Then a letter to the local council, copied to the local paper (maybe even the local radio/regional TV) with the photo's explaining how the situation is temporary and how difficult/dangerous the situation is for your children, and 'appealing' for some 'common sense and kindness' from the residents?
Might shame them into being less selfish.

Can 4 cars not use the teachers car park? It wouldn't matter if they were blocked in at those times. ????I wonder if the builders are using the road and blocking access during the day when you are not there. It just seems such an over reaction for 4 cars. I wonder if you are only seeing the thin end of the wedge and the neighbours have put up with more than you realise.

Getting irate over 4 cars is ridiculous imo, especially as it's a SEN school, across from my parents is a state primary school. It's an absolute nightmare and there must be 100+ cars that come down it. They drive at 40mph in 4x4s, driven by women who can barely see over their steering wheel or passed their silicone lips and tits. It's fucking ridiculous, the school have told them to not park on that road (as they don't give a shit, run each other's kids over and park across people's drives) and even put cones up with kids faces on- due to the fact that they mount the kerbs- this didn't stop them and they just ran the cones over.
Your post OP has made me annoyed because clearly you are nothing like the daft bitches that park up near my mums house and you sound very reasonable: if the people who drove down my mums road acted more like you I'm sure the residents there would be a lot more co-operative. I'll admit I've dumped my car in the middle of the road as 2 cars had parked over my mums drive and I couldn't get on it. There was uproar and everyone shouting at each other. At the time I really didn't give a shit. Anyway the residents near your sons school need to lighten up and be a bit more realistic. At least they don't live on my mums road!

Deliberately not using their drives and parking in the street to stop you parking there is just so spiteful.

Print off several copies of this thread and post it through each of their doors...with a note saying "Do you want us to go to the press? Would you like to be on the local news as trying to sabotage the parents of disabled children?

Failing that, I would definitely park in front of their empty drives.

SO selfish. Fuckers

It's a bit of a nightmare. I think your DC's school should be helping to resolve this though.

Suggestions: you take your child in slightly later and collect slightly earlier for duration of works. My DC is in a special school with limited parking. They said if ever I am driving them (rather than school transport) to do this. I have done it quite a bit and it's worked sooo much better.

You join the Tetris puzzle that is the school bus/ taxi car park.

The school arranges parking enforcement officers to be on that street regularly to oversee parking issues and enforce legal practices. (My other DC's school does this and it's effective).

If school do not resolve it, I would escalate it with police/ press. There would, I imagine, be zero point to dealing with the residents directly. You cannot reason with unreasonable people.

Take a photo of the cars (and the residents standing in their gardens if they still do that) and send it to your local newspaper.

Do you want us to go to the press? Would you like to be on the local news as trying to sabotage the parents of disabled children?

This.

I'd say it to the head teacher first/I doubt he/she wants to be in the papers about this. Then the residents.

I can't believe that a) they are getting so worked up about 4 cars and b) they are all there at 9am and 3pm and able to be moving cards around.

Would be awful if someone knocked one of their wing mirrors off whilst it was off the drive.

Could you find a soft looking resident and cry on them?

Most people are ok one on one, but can be arseholes in a group. Explain how hard it is for you with a disabled son, that there are only four cars needing to park twice a day (residents may fear that there are loads of you - most schools would have many more than four cars involved). Ask if you could possibly park by their drive until the work finishes, as you are finding it so stressful at the moment.

More flies with honey than vinegar and all that.

As someone who lives in a road with a school in it, I'll bet there's background to this that OP is not aware of. I imagine the residents are at the end of their rope with not being able to get near their own homes twice a day for most of the year - that's certainly the situation here.

Their actions are extreme and anti-social of course, but they will be doing it in response to anti-social attitudes, possibly including personal abuse and criminal damage, from the parents. You may not witness that happening OP, but it doesn't mean it's not going on.

Just a couple of examples from personal experience:
School holds a bonfire event for Guy Fawkes every year. School sends out a letter to each household in our road asking us to park elsewhere (where?) so that the "school community can come together on this occasion". It's always on a Saturday, starting early evening, so you can imagine how convenient that is. So convenient that unsurprisingly most of us don't do it. So we get a follow up letter expressing concern and disappointment at our lack of consideration and cooperation .

Second example:
Small child accompanying older child and mum on school run is carrying a stick. He is enjoying running the stick along the sides of the cars parked bumper to bumper along the road. Sometimes he stops to run the stick around the alloy spokes of cars that have them. Sometimes he stops to whack the stick against the sills and tyres, presumably carrying out a sound experiment. Mum does nothing.

A further example - I could go on all day:
I return home early afternoon just before pick up time. Two women are sitting on my garden bench chatting while they wait for the bell to go. I get the eye roll when I ask them politely to move.

You need to make this the school's problem.

Hmm, does sound like there might be historical issues to make the residents so awkward now - but that doesn't help you.

Agree - park over people's drives.
Leaflet the entire street.
Ring the community police and see if they can send someone round to have a word with residents?

You don't need this. Have some

It's always more complicated than said and I write as someone who lives near a school where some (not all) parents are absolutely disgusting in what they do and who they drive from the litter I get out of my car at least once a week to pick up just dropped without a by your leave on the road (!) to the fast driving in huge range rovers without slowing down for residents coming out of their road to total lack of consideration for residents (this is some not all parents of course).

The solution is always communication. Eg the school in our case emails us once a term to let all residents know which days will be busy because it's sports day. They have set up a committee and have regular meetings between school and residents. Schools can do all kinds of things like this to keep people on side. As ever with disputes communication is the key to it so someone needs here to start communicating.

carabos, your first example is a one-yearly event; your second example is a parenting issue (any child could be doing that, not just one on the school run); and your third example concerns people with no boundaries.

Not sure how that relates to the problems in the OP

OP, just out of interest, how come your DS doesn't get home to school transport?

I'd leaflet the houses, myself.

rhonda because the cumulative effect is to make local residents short on tolerance around schools, to the point where, wrongly in this case IMO, they feel they need to take a stand.

The school in our road recently had new classrooms built. They used the school car park to store the materials and wrote to resident neighbours more or less saying "tough tits, the parking is about to get even worse". They could have worked out any number of other solutions, but seemingly couldn't be bothered. The works were projected to take 9 months so it wasn't something to grin and bear for a few weeks.

Day 1 of the new arrangements, parents parked three abreast until our road was completely blocked - they turned it into a car park, but not in such a way that anyone could move. It took two hours and a police traffic car to clear it.

And parents of SN children are just as likely to be twats as anyone else.

carabos

The school near you sounds terrible.

The huge difference in the case of the OP's school is that most children get transport -all but 4/5 children.

I know its hard to believe but sometimes people are just twats. Especially if there is a twatty ringleader.

I've no idea about other issues but I haven't heard of anything. The school has been there a long time though.

DS doesn't get transport purely because I've seen a couple of things that have made me not trust them (them being the extreme minority but you can't choose who you get) coupled with my massive over protectiveness of him and his separation anxiety, trusting school to take care of him is enough for me for now.

Carabos' first example shows the attitude the school has toward the residents - expecting them to just accommodate them instead of cooperation. Second example is to show that there may be similar related historical problem (but not a direct parking issue as in lack of spaces on street) with damage to property due to previous parents' carelessness that may be behind this current hostility (which appears disproportionate).

Third example shows that while the OP and current lot of parents may be considerate, the residents may have had to deal with abuse from previous parents.

Not that hard to see how these examples relate.

I can promise you that none of us are twats with our parking. Although SN parenting doesn't make it any less likely, we just aren't.

I also live near a school, and I've seen the way some parents act with parking so I understand that it can be stressful. But at least for last year and this year no ones been a selfish idiot with parking that I've seen.

Ok, you are on pretty strong ground then in regards to being 'right'. So get your DC's school to pull their finger out and help you all!

One final suggestion is to see this temporary problem as potential for a school transport trial. Tell them you only need it temporarily and see how you all get on with it.

I have done both school transport and school run myself at 2 different special schools. I can't describe how much better it is now we have good school transport. I have had to make complaints, email chief exec, refuse to allow one particular escort to be used etc to get there but it's so worth it.

OP, we have a specialist centre at our school and have children arrive every day by taxi.

IME as long as you have good communication with the taxi company and a water-tight arrangement for collecting the children at the school end, it can work really well. All our drivers are CRB checked of course and we only use two companies.

Maybe as he gets more confident it would be something to consider, though one of our parents declined the transport in Year R and didn't realise it was a one-off offer when she changed her mind in Year 2.

Could you double up when collecting. i.e. leave 1 car nearby then get into the car with another parent, that parent stays in the car parked over an empty drive (if anyone complains tell them that you'll swap places with one of their cars parked on the road if they want to put their car in their drive), while the other parent collects both children.