To ignore the school parking diktat?

[Ginmakesitallok]

I drive to drop off andpick kids up from school - too far to walk and on my way to work. Its busy, but i usually get a space in the street beside school.

Theres a note in a recent school newsletter to say that parents shouldn't drive into this street, that there's no parking for parents there and that the yellow lines are for kids safety.

Now - it's a public road, no restricted parking, only yellow lines are at junctions where I'd never park. Surely the school can't think that it can stop parents parking where they want if they are parking legally??

I find it so frustrating that people wrangle over 'finding a solution' when there is one - just don't try and park so close.

But people are too stubborn to walk two minutes further.

No wonder there's an obesity crisis.

I imagine the school has been contacted repeatedly by local residents, and probably that other parents have raised that the current situation is not a good one.
Sure, legally you can park there, but wouldn't you like to do the decent thing?

pief I'm not lazy, if the school doesn't open the gates on time and i'm 5 mins late for work I get docked 15 mins of my minimum wage.

I get to school early so I can park as close as I can (legally and safely) giving me enough time to get to work.

I live close to a large secondary school. The congestion only affects me if I want to drive out of town, because the precious ones couldn't be dropped as far off as two minutes' walk away, but it's emphatically not only for 15 minutes twice a day. To steer clear of hellish congestion, shitty parking and bad tempers, you have to forget going out between 3 and 4pm. It's only about 45 minutes in the mornings because parents are keener to get off then so will stop in the most convenient spot (for them, ha!) rather than come early to try and bag a space.
All perfectly legally parked, but I can barely get my tiny car through sometimes. Still, long as nobody needs an ambulance, eh.

Honestly the old argument of 'poor residents', if you can't deal with 30 mins a day of cars then don't move there. 9 times out of 10 the school has been there a lot longer.

If you say 'no car in that's ttreet' and everyone complies, they will move to the closest street, all at the same place with all the exact same problems. Just a different road.

Well not really. The layout of streets around every school is different, but many schools have lots of streets surrounding. If you ban parking in the street closest to the school here, parents would have to choose between 4 or 5 other streets a bit further away, but of equal distances. So each street would get 20% - 25% of the parking traffic instead of one street getting 100%. That's far more manageable.

School have no power over parking - local residents complain repeatedly to our Head who can only ask and reiterate considerate parking in newsletters. She can't enforce, monitor where people are parking and move people on. It's not her job to. We have had a couple of instances where police support officers have been around at pick up / drop off and they don't even need to DO anything, they just need to stand on the road approaching the school in their high vis jackets and people behave beautifully and park properly. Then next day the support officers are off doing something more important and they're back to their old tricks of inconsiderate parking.

Downright selfish.

"From what you have said I would continue to park there, but I think we need a diagram!!!!"

But FFS why would you, when the school has asked you not to. That is what I don't understand. They haven't asked for the fun of it have they? If you can't see why a build up of cars driving up and and down one road trying to find a spot, reversing into a spot etc, waiting whilst someone else vacates a spot whilst say 100 or so kids are trying to cross that same road then you are being a bit short sighted.

It happens at my school every single day and the amount of near misses I have seen is horrendous. The school asks for people not to park there, the PCSO's ask people not to park there. Parents have asked people not to park there. Still the stupid arses park there.

Honestly the old argument of 'poor residents', if you can't deal with 30 mins a day of cars then don't move there. 9 times out of 10 the school has been there a lot longer.

We have been here 10 years, when we moved here the school had 250 pupils. It now has 380.

The main issue really is that schools have been designed at a time when children were walking to school. There is no provision for cars at all and this is what creates all the issues we have now.

You can't stop people using their cars. You can't stop the congestion around schools.
You can stop people from parking illegally (by involving the Police etc...).
You can. Protect children when crossing (again double yellow lines next to crossing, lollipop lady etc...)

As for doing a U turn in a small road, I assume it has to be a dead end. There isn't that many of them around isn't there?

Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

We have exactly the same dictat at my DD's school. I used to park reasonably but sadly other parents didn't and therefore ruined it for the rest of us.

Rather than stamping my feet and thinking "I am entitled to park here" I thought how bloody miserable it must be to live there and have abided by the request. We park slightly further away and walk. It doesn't inconvenice us and is just a basic bloody decent thing to do to help out others not being inconvenienced

Diagram! If you don't drive into the street then you can't turn round safely. There's a one way street at the top which has parking on one side and narrow pavements - not great to go up when kids are walking up that way. Diagram not to.scale! Street is longer than road up to school.

Honestly the old argument of 'poor residents', if you can't deal with 30 mins a day of cars then don't move there. 9 times out of 10 the school has been there a lot longer

That isn't a valid argument. If it was 30 minutes of people parking reasonably then I would agree. But it isn't, it is drives blocked, dangerous driving and abuse.

I live near a bowling club. When I moved here it was tiny. Now another close one has shut it has doubled in size. People regularly park over my drive - that doesn't mean that I shouldn't live here because they were there first. It means situations change and everyone has to work together to mean that people can use a service whilst local residents aren't inconvenienced.

"Honestly the old argument of 'poor residents', if you can't deal with 30 mins a day of cars then don't move there. 9 times out of 10 the school has been there a lot longer."

When in his 60s my dad moved next door to a school that he had went to as a child. He was prepared for things like school noise, stuff kicked into his garden, litter from some of the kids. He was also prepared for periods of congestion. What annoys him though is that when he, not unreasonably, wants to leave his house in his car, there are inconsiderate wanker parents parked right across his drive who get really pissed off that they have to move entitled backsides out the way. I suspect this is the issue. Not just being there and parked legally but being there, parked very badly and inconsiderate and nasty with it.

Once (and only once so not going to say this is something to really plan fort but should be noted) his neighbour was found by his wife (who was working night shift as a nurse) slumped in a living room chair having had a heart attack when she came home. The ambulance really struggled to get to his house in the street cause of all the badly parked cars. It parked in the middle of the road and the stress that suddenly put blocked-in parents who then needed to get to work was apparently immense. One even drove through a garden to get passed. This is an extreme example but road rules, parking spaces and driveways need to be respected, regardless of how long the school has been there. Is it really that bad a thing for people to want their road to be accessible and their driveway access respected? Legal parking fine, wanker parking is not.

I live beside a school. Parent parking is a fucking parallel universe. People who seem to follow the rules of the road elsewhere somehow decide they don't apply to them once they are in "pick up/drop off" mode. It's insane. I've seen fist fights, hour long road blocks because two cars are having a stand off and refusing to budge. Just yesterday a woman in a car refused to reverse and allow a bus carrying children with special needs to pass her. There was a whole queue of traffic behind the bus and she already had her DC in her car so no urgency that she needed to rescue her DC from the clutches of the evil school teacher. Clearly her need to sit in the middle of the road was more important than anyone else's need to get on with their bloody day. Insane. I don't know why. Patience and consideration needed in massive amounts. I think they should make all residential streets by schools permit parking for residents only.

I have same situation at DS school except I'm disabled and can't walk very far. I have a wheelchair but for various reasons can't get to the school in it, but can't drive and then get it out if the car either. It's too heavy without a hoist and the street is to slopey to use the hoist, it needs even ground.

So there is only space for around 5 cars to park safely. Then another 5 or so block driveways, the pavement (another reason I cannot rely on using my wheelchair) and in front of the gate itself.

If just one parent didn't park, and walked a bit further from a side street instead, it would be an enormous help to me. I can't walk, you can.

The upshot is that my 5 yr old gets kept back after school because I'm not there, and he asks me why. It breaks my heart to explain I was on time, I was waiting round the corner and had to wait for others to collect their kids first, move their cars (after long chit chat in the playground) and then move my car close enough to walk.

And in the morning if I can't get a space we have to sit and wait in a side street. DS cries if he's late, so always cries when he hears the bell and doesn't understand why we can't just drive over them like a tank. He's developing anxiety about time and lateness. School are not counting it as late, they understand but he does to. He knows he's late if he goes through the office door and is last in the classroom. This is not his fault.

Or I can park like a dick and join the rest of them, and sometimes I do. But only my car has been pictured and posted on the school Facebook page by other mums, abusing me. And my disability was known and mentioned. It Didn't stop them and their awful comments. I cry most days in the build up to the school run and start worrying about it on Sundays. I can't enjoy family time and this is having a very real impact on our lives. I'm trying very hard to work full time, support my family and raise my son. Being disabled on top is hard enough, this school run bollocks is making it near impossible to be actively involved in the school.

So if you can, walk. Please.

Fwiw I have a private off road drive with two spaces and parents still park on it and infront of it blocking me in or out.

I can tell you what happens next. I live in a road next to a school, the school has opened up a sixth form, start right centre and expanded its building numerous times since the housing went up. To do this they have used the space that used to be available to park in.
Now there is no parking onsite for anyone- that is yr. R right through to sixth form.
Every parent thinks their parking right is more important than anyone else's- local residents and other parents. Now our road and three others have successfully petitioned the council to put in parking restrictions. There are enforceable fines for anyone parking where they shouldn't.
Still everyone is protesting 'I need to park here' and the fact that there inconsiderate parking has created the situation they still bloody do it!
It's maddening to hear the attitude just doesn't change!

Their houses would have been cheaper as a result of this so I'd not change.

But even if you followed the school advice surely it would only push the problem onto the next street?

I wish people wouldn't park outside my house 24/7 to go to the newsagents but when I bought my house I realised that this would happen being so close to a shop.

The residents can always apply to the council for parking restrictions if they wish.

Not sure why you bothered asking, seems perfectly clear that you don't see a problem with where you park and are going to carry on doing so, despite the fact the school must have had a good reason for asking people not to park there...

This isn't about inconsiderate parking - which I don't think anyone is defending! It's about a school thinking they can tell parents not to drive up a particular street. If everyone obeyed this then there would be carnage as cars either all tried to turn round outside school or got funnelled into a one way street full of kids. I wonder if teachers have been told the same??

Better, more regular and more accessible bus services and free school bus for all children would probably go some way to alleviating the problem. Of course there will be some who buses just aren't suitable for but there will be plenty who they are.

Our head teacher walks out to the street every other morning and tells parents not to park or drive down a particular road by our school which is a dead end. There are parking restrictions but she has no legal right to tell people not to drive down the road. She does it in the children's best interest because people drive so fast past our school gate there have been a few near misses. I avoid driving down that particular road but people still drive down it to save a couple of minutes.

I've lived in the same street as a primary school and opposite a large secondary. Primary is by far the worse for congestion, but a lot of that is because it was a small village with a popular school drawing parents in and few school busses. Cars parked either side of the road prevents emergency vehicles getting through, cars parked on the already narrow footpaths make it impossible to get a buggy or wheelchair through. Parking so close to junctions making vision difficult. There are signs everywhere reminding parents that parking here endangers the life of children. Some of these signs have been squashed by parents cars that cant see them. There is parking at local shop, church, village hall and cricket pavilion all within 10 mins walk but none are used. It is a nightmare for residents at those times. Secondary on the other hand, children generally walk in or are bussed in so much less congestion. Also children dropped off are thrown out of the car alone rather than being walked into school by parents. I dislike the if you cant deal with the congestion don't buy a house there argument. Sometimes that will be the only available house for you, and sometimes it will be the most convenient (while you are walking your children to said school) but the housing market means your stuck there when they move on and have little choice about your location. Yes residents need to be understanding, but parents also have to have some consideration for everyone to get on well. Particularly in a small community primary where integration is quite important.

There's a school in the street that I live in - and the school was not there when we moved in! Our street is a dead end. The catchment area is maximum 10 minutes walking. There are 'do not park' white lines all over the place, but the parents ignore them all the time. I am frequently boxed in by moronic mothers who think that because they are a parent, they can park where they like and for as long as they like. I overheard another idiot parent telling her mate that the parking spaces in the street belonged to the school. Err - no they don't you stupid moo, they belong to the residents who pay for their upkeep! She was less than pleased to be corrected, and I was polite about telling her. We have some precious snowflakes who are literally driven around the corner, about 200 yards total, who don't even have to cross the road to reach the school. School holidays are the best time of the year for us. We don't have to deal with the congestion, the swearing (children and parents) the litter, the cretins who wet themselves because I happen to be walking my dog along the street where I live and the highly inconsiderate parking.

If you buy a house beside a school, that's one thing. But have some sympathy for us who have had a school - and the bloody parents - inflicted upon us. And before you say 'oh you could move house' let me quote the OP why should I?