What do we do now?

[Amy214]

We live near a primary school and for the past year the parents have increasingly used the street as a drop off/pick up point. They have blocked my car in 3 times and i have had to wait until they come back to ask them not to do it again as i may be trying to get to something important and it's really not fair (dds doctors appointment) i now avoid leaving my house around school times because i hate the hassle. Today i finally reached the end of my tether when a parent was inches away from crashing into me when she decided to reverse out (at full speed) into a main road. I was slowing down as i was approaching the junction but i still had to perform an emergency stop and scared dd. When she finally parked i asked her why she done that as it was a very dangerous manoeuvre and if someone wasn't paying attention like me it could've ended badly. She cried and told me she was running late for picking her dd up which i then told her was no excuse and she needs to be more careful in future. I approached another parent and asked her if she or other parents have ever spoken to the school themselves to see if they could fund a new car park (the current car park is tiny) and she lost her temper at me and asked why should they it's fine the way it is. I have complained to the school numerous times and they say they understand and they have loads of complaints everyday but won't do anything about it. I literally begged them for help even if they can send someone to help organise the traffic as i am frightened someone is going to get hurt. The children constantly run around on the road and with parents driving to fast it is an accident waiting to happen. But they will not do anything. I have complained to the council and our local pcso but nothing has been done. I have asked other residents that live here and they are getting fed up aswell. Our local mp is having a public meeting on monday which i will attend to see if she can help in anyway. I have been taking a note of how many cars come in the morning and afternoon, also number plates. But what can i do now? It seems like no one wants to do anything about it..

(so much that i don't think my dd will get a place there)

They don't get a choice if they are a state school. The LA does the allocation.

Parking is a massive problem at our school. The school doesn't have any space at all it can turn into a carpark. It uses a local park for its outdoor PE lessons (except netball) because it doesn't have any of its own fields even. The netball court, I suppose, technically, could be turned into parking, but for the tiny number of cars it's really not worth losing it. The streets around the school are residential, all big detached houses with their own driveways so lots of dropped kerbs (even less parking).

The vast majority of kids have to be driven to school & collected by car because it's not walkable for vast majority. Some of them that get dropped off/collected by car do live within a walkable distance, but the parents are on their way to & home from work & don't have the extra time to drive home, park the car & walk back to school.

The homeowners get frustrated. The parents get frustrated. But there's not really very many options.

The church has a large carpark, but will not permit parents to use it (you have to love that community spirit🙄) & fires off nasty letters to school if any unsuspecting new parent does park there. I'd see their point if it was used by church goers etc, but in the many years we've been at the school I've never seem more than a couple of cars in it.

The school does stagger the year group collection times, but not by enough. spreading them out a bit more would help a little.

Zoning the residential roads to prevent all day parking would help too & I believe that's being looked into (it wouldn't affect the residents as they all have huge driveways). It would stop people parking there & catching the bus into town for the day (to save the astronomical parking charges), but it would orobably just push the issue out a bit further & annoy others. Unless they set up another park & ride.

My proposal. [They already have a morning 'kiss & drop'. You pull up, the child gets assisted out of the car & into the side gate & you move off].

Afternoon collection. In this day & age it is surely possible to organise a form of 'click & collect'. When you get to the side street you could text/ping/whatever the school and it would highlight your child's name in their list, with your number plate & your child would activate their name on a list when they get to the collection point. When both lights are green it automatically texts/pings/whatever & you go to the collection point where the 'kiss & drop' (now click & collect too!) team bring the child to the waiting car. It sounds complicated written down, but it's really not.

Would any of these things help you?

I think that if you want to tackle this problem, you need to separate issues that are merely irritating from issues that could and should be addressed.

I'm afraid that as you have been phoning the school complaining every day, they probably now consider you to be a nuisance caller and won't take you seriously so it might be worth getting together with your neighbours and nominating someone else to be the spokesperson.

Parents parking legally on roads near the school is the price you pay for living near a school. There is nothing you can do about this.

People parking across your driveway and blocking you in is not acceptable. I would suggest photographing the car and number plate and getting your new residents' group spokesperson to send the evidence to both the school, local police, local council and local newspaper every single time it occurs.

Dangerous driving should be reported to the police.

Pick your battles. You can't stop parents parking in your road. It's not your place to judge people who drive their children to school and say they should walk. They may be on their way to work or be disabled or live a long way away or have musical instruments to carry or have an older child to get to another school etc etc.

Our local primary is the entrance of a long cul-de-sac and it amazis me how many people would rather manoeuvre in and out of said cul-de-sac than take 2 mintes to park and walk around the corner.

There's often a police officer or warden there - and, of cours,e people are so affronted when they're charged for parking on the zigzags.

On days when you have an appointment, or something, I'd get your car out early, even if it means there's one less space for the lazy sods.

Wasn't there a thread on here recently when an entire road of residents parked their cars in the street rather than in their driveways? Leaving large spaces in between each other that weren't quite big enough for cars? They did it daily for a while and caused chaos.
Not sure it would work long-term, but it might relieve some of your tension!

I remember that one, clam :o

And apologies for the embarrassing typing! I should get some shut eye!

Can someone find and link it?

Amy I was replying to Scholes's post.

The school has a massive playground (they recently refurbed it) it is a state school but part of me is hoping she doesn't go there as i would have to walk past all the cars and it would fill me with rage everyday. If she attends the other school we can walk the back way and i wouldn't have to look at it.
There is a massive field thats behind the houses but near the same area where they all park and a turning point or car park would fit there but i don't think they would consider it.
PickAChew i leave at 8.30am every morning (just to get dd to preschool) and they are already starting to arrive.

We did that too with the parking the cars on the road. It got to the point barely anyone could get out of their drive because of the parking. Also parking on corners and driving too fast. We parked up both sides of the road so people could only drive slowly down the middle. Did it for a few weeks and the hassle stopped. Every time it starts up again we do it again.

Very sorry about this situation.
There is very little you are able to do about this; nothing penetrates the consciousness of parents when they are delivering their offspring to school; normal rules do not apply to them, and even the presence of the police has little effect because they rarely prosecute.
Double yellow lines round the school simply mean that the problem is shifted elsewhere. I once tried to stop a mother driving the wrong way down the one-way system; her response: 'I have a busy schedule to keep to even if you don't.'

We have this at my DCs primary there is no school parking as such, the school gives out permits for free parking at a council car park which is only a 5 minute walk away but still to far for the parents who insist on blocking the residents cars in, it really drives me mad it's so dangerous to cross this road to get our DC to school, the parents literally block the road, drive at high speed reverse back into the main road.

Last year there was an incident at the school where an ambulance was required but of course it could not get down the road, the head sent us all a letter asking us to park considerately and ideally not park in this road at all it made no difference, parking wardens occasionally come down the road but nothing changes, I feel sorry for the residents I would hate to live down that road. I don't know why some people are so selfish. I don't know what the answer is or If there is one even. As I said the school issue free parking permits what else can they do I just wish more people would use them,

Definitely contact the local paper with all of your material. They will have a field day, and it will be a catalyst for action.

We have a huge carpark that's a 2 minute ( safe) walk from the school. It identified belong to school but there is an arangement threat we can use it. you would think that every parent would use it wouldn't you?
Nope, half of them still block residents in and generally park like twats

Well if nothing penetrates the consciousness of the parents at drop off, a picture of said crappy dangerous parking shared on social media might start to.

Your local council has a legal obligation under the education and inspection act (2006) to promote sustainable travel walking, cycling etc. for the schools in their area and thus should include safe accessibility to the school. All schools are encouraged to have a Travel Plan ( I used to write ours each year when I was a school governor) and in it parking issues for the local neighbourhood should be addressed. Ask the school if they have one - they should. If they don't - get in touch with the local council and insist that one is drawn up. It is part of their legal obligation.

As suggested, get all resident to park on the road before the twats begin to arrive. Space out so that there is literally nowhere that they can park. A few days of that will sort it. Or weeks, if necessary. Some idiots take longer to learn

Repeat as necessary.

We have this issue at my kids school. We regularly get asked in newletters not to park in the road opposite the school. Some parents literally don't give a crap and block in the residents on occasion. There's a huge car park we have access too literally a minutes walk away but god forbid they would have to walk!

Even worse are the numerous parents who I see drive to school and back that live around the corner from me. It takes us around 7 whole minutes to walk it. They don't go straight onto work after, they get back home about 30 seconds before I do by the time they've parked at school etc anyway.

Same problem as us until last year. My neighbour really lost it and put up a sign saying "clamping/Towing zone" .No result. He then started blocking in the parents' cars with his van and they were stuck until 9 or 10 in the night. A few weeks of this happening and it stopped. We now have maybe one or 2 parking in a very considerate manner. Which is fine by all of us. What really bothered us was the incessant blocking in of residents, haphazard parking, using 3 parking spots to park one fucking car and other madness.

I can understand that people get frustrated with illegal or inconsiderate parking around schools but where I live the primary school has a large catchment area, add to this the fact that a lot of parents (and let's face it - mostly mums) have to drop off/pick up kids at nursery and primary or secondary school AND get to our come home from work - perhaps even with babies and toddlers in tow- I think its better to find positive solutions rather than reactionary and unsustainable protests. More school buses, more staggered drop and pick ups, turning circles for kiss and drops, crocodile walking groups with allocated pick up points.

Making life harder for folk who park considerately and are just trying to get their kids to school and get to work so they can pay their bills is a really shitty thing to do, especially when working together would be more effective.

There's always a few who ruin it for everyone. My DDs school has moved site and it is utter chaos around the school because of a couple of idiots - people driving on the pavement, parking on double yellows etc and now everyone who drives to the school has been branded lazy asses who should walk no matter how far. I Park a little way away and walk 5 mins, perfectly considerately and legally, but I am still nervous of upsetting residents. There are more cars than they're used to because it was a secondary school until this year. There is plenty of safe on street parking but some people just want to get as close as possible. There is going to be a huge problem and possibly an accident although I sincerely hope not. I do feel for the residents but as long as cars are safely and considerately parked they should be a bit understanding.

Making life harder for folk who park considerately and are just trying to get their kids to school and get to work so they can pay their bills is a really shitty thing to do, especially when working together would be more effective.

If they double park on our narrow lane they are not parking considerately. Fortunately, neighbour action and the PCSOs regular attendance means they now park along the main road.

This is a secondary school, plenty of buses, most live within easy walking distance. Mothers used to arrive up to half an hour before school finished and sit playing with their phones for half an hour. So not busy working parents at all, just inconsiderate twats. Who now have to park elsewhere.