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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

School parking

140 replies

Tameonefirst · 04/03/2016 22:40

Received a text from dcs school tonight asking parents not to park on the roads around the school as neighbours are complaining that they can't park on the road outside their houses. AIBU to think that A: they don't own the road and as long as people are parked properly not blocking drives there's nothing to complain about, B: they bought a house next to a school, surely they knew this was going to happen, and C: the school should have explained point A to the complainer? Thank you

OP posts:
kali110 · 05/03/2016 01:33

We double yellow lines along my rd too op, however they don't seem to think it applies to them. I hate having to go out in the morning, as it's gotten quite scary Confused

kali110 · 05/03/2016 01:36

sunnyawry other people should alter their day just so parents can park where they like??

Next person who blocks my neighbours drive is getting towed.

sunnyawry · 05/03/2016 05:16

No at all kali, they should alter their day if they really want to be able to park outside either own house at all times, as their car will then be blocking the space from anyone else who wants to legally and respectfully park there at the regular and predictable times when the area becomes busy.
Blocking drives is certainly not on.

ivykaty44 · 05/03/2016 05:54

www.westerndailypress.co.uk/Primary-school-parents-abused-Good-Samaritan-boy/story-26503797-detail/story.html

www.gloucestershireecho.co.uk/Head-teacher-calls-action-school-children-knocked/story-26548162-detail/story.html
www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Crackdown-school-run-parents-child-hit-car/story-20548602-detail/story.html
www.westbriton.co.uk/Police-clamp-dangerous-driving-school-run-parents/story-17863171-detail/story.htmlhttp://www.roadsafetygb.org.uk/news/4630.html]]

Op up and down the country inconsiderate - read illegal parking and driving by parents driving thuer dc to school is causing problems.

Some children have been knocked down, this is dangerous.

Schools were built in residential areas due to the nature of their captive audience - children living in the area needing educating.

There are solutions to the problems but they involve other methods if transport.

One area has put in cycle lanes and reduced traffic speed, thing is it's a bit if chicken & egg or a catch 22 until the roads are safer cycling is dangerous but if more cycled to school the roads would be safer and you can cycle right up to school no worrying about parking.

ivykaty44 · 05/03/2016 06:00

This text was specifically about residents not being able to park on the road outside their house.

This is a problem, residents come home and drive down their street, they can't park. They cant drive to another Street to get parked as the parents will all be parked up.
This then can end up blocking roads, cause chaos.

It's not a case of entitled householders wanting to park outside their homes, it more of householders having nowhere to park.

AnotherTimeMaybe · 05/03/2016 06:14

Wow your school has some nerve..... Ignore the text they don't own the road simple as that
Our school takes pictures of parents' dodgy parking in front of driveways and emails everyone which is fine as they are trying to protect the residents but yours is crossing the line !!

This is a problem, residents come home and drive down their street, they can't park
Fair comment but you don't get many people coming home at 3:30 from work ... Also they knew it when they were buying next to a school...

I live 5 mins from a school and every Friday when I don't work at 15:35 I hear all the noise from children leaving school going to the train near me. Sometimes my baby wakes up..Shall I ask everyone to go another way?

budgiegirl · 05/03/2016 06:48

While it's true that residents don't own the road, some parents park like absolute idiots on the school run, and it must get incredibly frustrating for the local residents. It sounds like your school have tried the 'don't park like idiots' text, and it didn't work, so they've moved on to 'don't park there at all'

Our primary school gate is at the end of a cul de sac. There are repeated requests from the school not to drive down the cul de sac , as turning at the end is narrow and very dangerous with all the children walking along and crossing the roost. There are two large public car parks at the entrance to the culdesac, so no problems with parking. And still parents insist on driving right up to the gate. Is it legal? Of course. Is it safe? No. But the request doesn't apply to them after all, because they'll only be a minute or two.

AugustaFinkNottle · 05/03/2016 06:51

Also they knew it when they were buying next to a school

Not necessarily. As pointed out upthread, some of the residents may have lived there for decades and moved in at a time when everyone walked to school. Also there are a lot of new free schools springing up now in buildings that were originally things like offices, so there is no way that neighbours of those schools necessarily could have anticipated them.

This thread epitomises a major theme on MN - just because something is legal doesn't necessarily make it considerate, and it really does no harm to be considerate. Some of the neighbours or their visitors may need a space near their homes because of mobility problems, because they have a lot to unload, because they have small children to sort out etc.

It's particularly unfair on those who live very near the school, because of some parents' insistence on parking as close as they possibly can, God forbid that they should have to walk an extra 20 metres. At our local primary school, there's a free car park around 70 metres away from the entrance and parents are regularly exhorted to use it. Guess what, they don't.

yomellamoHelly · 05/03/2016 07:01

Happens at my dd's primary. Trouble is it started out as a one-form school and is now three. So children from a much larger area. And lots of parents have work to get to straight after.
Given there's a 20% uplift in house prices for being near to the school there's a part of me that thinks they should cash in on it and find somewhere else. (Is the elderly residents that are the most vocal.) But maybe that's unreasonable.

WaitrosePigeon · 05/03/2016 07:04

Agree OP. As long as it's safe, considerate parking and driving I see no problem. We've had a similar text/email and I ignore it.

RidersOnTheStorm · 05/03/2016 07:10

It's stupid to say people shouldn't buy houses near schools. When people buy houses near schools they don't realise that a lot of parents are total cunts when it comes to parking, they expect people to be reasonable.

There is little more unreasonable than an "entitled" parent thinking they have a perfect right to block roads, obstruct the highway, endanger other DCs trying to cross safely, park on pavements etc etc.

The road traffic offence of "obstruction" is used to good effect ticketing idiot parents at schools near here.

Original poster
Tameonefirst · 05/03/2016 08:38

Sorry, I should have said it's new houses that have been built so the people have only been living there for a couple of months. I didn't think that was relevant to my post but can see now that it most definitely is in regards to point B.

OP posts:
FrogletinaBallerina · 05/03/2016 08:46

We live two roads from a primary school. A house on the next road (so one closer to the school) actually has a laminated letter that they place under the wipers of any car who parks outside their house.

Never mind that their drive behind their house has space for their two cars, and they always park on the drive, the letter states that they may need to park there so could the car owner not. There's something in the letter about it being antisocial too...

Katenka · 05/03/2016 08:48

If all parents start parking a mile away and walking that mile. Those residents will complain there.

Considerate parking should be a given.

But you can't tell people they can not park on a public road.

If you buy near a school you know this will happen. I used to live on the road near this school. Fully expected it. But you shouldn't have to put up with bad parking and blocking of the road.

In an ideal world we would have all got places at a school down the road. But we didn't so driving is necessary for lots of parents.

So many parents drive like knobs at my kids primary school, but that isn't tackled.

My dds secondary has a drop off point. You pull into the drive, queue and then when you get to it the kids jump out. There is a small roundabout further up and you go round it and come out. Despite it taking an average of three minutes (school asked parents to time it) some knobheads still park on the road or zig zag lines blocking the flow of traffic.

budgiegirl · 05/03/2016 09:00

Considerate parking should be a given

It should be, but unfortunately it just isn't. It's incredible how many parents become totally selfish when they get behind the wheel of a car. So I can see why the school may ask that parents don't park near the school. If they park in the nearby streets, it may help to spread the cars out a bit.

But unfortunately it won't work, parents will just ignore it, because legally they can park in the street by the school.

MiaowTheCat · 05/03/2016 09:05

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Catphrase · 05/03/2016 09:13

I don't know how they put up with it at mine, it's bloody awful. Driving at you full 4 wheels on the pavement, on corners, over drives, on verges, over garages.
My favourite is one car taking up 2 disabled spaces without a blinking blue badge. There are a few badge users, I don't know how they keep their cool.
No one says anything. The police have been threatened at my other local school but never turned up - they would make a fortune in fines.

lem73 · 05/03/2016 09:15

On the other side of our school, where the main gate is located, there is a recently built housing development. The parking is marked as residents only. The lazy parents of our school were whooping with joy at all the extra parking space created and they have behaved appallingly to the residents. I am gobsmacked when I see the parking at school pick up time. It actually lasts like that til about 4.30 due to after school activities. Once a parent managed to park in a manner that blocked an ambulance going to an elderly man. There have been stories of stand up rows between parents too. Even if the residents knew they were buying beside a school, I don't think they could have envisaged this.

shinynewusername · 05/03/2016 09:17

YANBU about this particular issue but I can understand residents' being at the end of their tether. I used to work at a GP surgery opposite a school. Despite signs pleading with parents not to take the spaces, our car park was rammed with their cars, so our elderly, sick and disabled patients could not park Angry

Pipbin · 05/03/2016 09:23

sunnyawry other people should alter their day just so parents can park where they like??

Now I used to live near a school and only had on road parking. I used to plan my day around making sure I was already home by school run time (really not very hard to do) otherwise I couldn't park. The parents had very right to park on the road outside my house.

I'm on the fence with this one. Inconsiderate parkers piss me off as do people who think they own the road outside their house.

LarrytheCucumber · 05/03/2016 09:23

I live near a site with three schools.
When we bought the house there were only two schools, and in 1984 when we moved in, most children still walked, or were walked, to school, because this is a small town and people in those days went to their neighbourhood school. So I do disagree that people who bought a house near a school knew what they were in for.
There are amazing examples of inconsiderate parking, my favourite being a large blue minibus which always parks on the corner of one of the cul de sacs so people trying to get out can't see round it. It is illegal, but it's OK the driver sits in the car so they can move if necessary- but of course they don't. The driver just watches the chaos!

Pipbin · 05/03/2016 09:24

I do like the way that everyone on this thread is complaining about 'parents' like it doesn't include them.

ivykaty44 · 05/03/2016 09:28

Pitbin, I don't have dc attending a school Grin I didn't take my dc to school after year 3/4 and before this I walked them to school and walked them home. Unlike two other parents in the street who drove.

YesterdayOnceMore · 05/03/2016 09:30

Legal and safe parking by parents on roads around schools is something the residents just have to live with. The residents have no more right to park on the road in front of their house than the parents do.

There are plenty of reasons which mean parents have to drive to school and drop off and pick up time and need to park close to the school. Not everyone has the luxury of being about to walk to school.

LarrytheCucumber · 05/03/2016 09:33

It doesn't include me- I'm retired. However I was a victim of this the other week at my grandchildren's school. We went to a special assembly before the end of school and were able to park safely and legally. There was plenty of room for vehicles to move up and down. When we came back a parent had parked on the other side of the road, two wheels on the pavement. There was no longer room for a large vehicle and our wing mirror had been broken off- it cost nearly £300 to have it repaired, all because of inconsiderate parking :(