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??

They all park on the yellow lines outside dts school - sometime I walk the dog before pick up and they're all sitting there at 230, presumably so they don't have to park a whole 5 minutes walk away. I don't know why they don't get tickets.

I'm so glad we walk to school.

I'm not talking about inconsiderate parking, people who block drives, park on bends, drive like maniacs. Those people should be dealt with and sadly those people are the ones that cause rules like the OP is stating.

I dont see how a school and nearby residents can enforce a 'no parking area' just because they don't like it.

I should also add, on the days I don't need to be at work I park in a public car park down the road and walk in.

Oh and 99% of secondary school children dont need to be dropped outside the school gates in my opinion, so I do have sympathy there.

If parents who didn't genuinely live too far away (we could debate the distance all day and I doubt we'd get a consensus, but that's a different matter) didn't drive.
And if parents who didn't have time pressures, e.g. getting to work on time, didn't drive.
The problem would be reduced massively.
A lot is spoken about how driving changes people's mentality, e.g. motorway driving, inner city driving etc., but the absolute worst example is school-run driving. It seems to turn otherwise reasonable humans into aggressive, irrational, unreasonable arseholes.
When my youngest son was still at primary, there was a raised pedestrian 'strip' across the road entrance, I was walking with my son across this when a driver literally pulled up to 4" from us and banged her window in rage.
I mouthed " f*^k off" (not productive I realise) and continued on.
I agree with those who've said that ti doesn't need to be illegal to be 'wrong'. Equally one car could be parked legally and considerately, and be ok, but when it's dozens and dozens it may still be legal, but stops being considerate or safe. We can't say "it's alright for me to" and ignore that we're part of a group and therefore contribute to a larger problem.
I also don't agree that "if you buy a house near a school you should lump it"; it doesn't mean anyone should tolerate inconsiderate and unsafe behaviour by people in large dangerous lumps of metal.

I live near a high school. Doesn't bother me when parents park legally, and why on earth should it? Some of my neighbours get a bee in their bonnet about it, but they're complete arses.

Wherever you park it's likely to be outside someone's home or business - most likely home near a school. You can't win with some people. Just don't block roads or driveways, otherwise park where you want.

Your attitude is really shabby OP and perhaps a bit too much of that is how letters like that get sent out. Just chill out and be a bit more flexible!

One council has introduced restricted parking around school hours. Residents only 8 -9am and 3 - 4pm. That should be used a lot e

Noone could stop it if there are no restrictions in place so if the local residents are unhappy then they would need to ask the local authority could introduce permit parking, which would presumably mean a cost to the resident but I guess that the school are just trying to maintain good relations with the local residents or maybe it's a safety issue.

Only time the parking really bothered me was at an end of term we were packing our car for holiday in the resident carpark and a parent shouted at dh for parking in her space she used every day cheeky cowbag was really offended she couldn't park next to the school

Some parents at our school park on the dropped kerb right outside the school gate. So kids walk through the gate and they start reversing more or less straight towards them to get off the pavement again.

I said to a man the other day, 'Top place to park there! Watch out for the kids!' he replied 'Fuck off!'

The amount of times my drive has been blocked or some pillock has decided driving into me is going to get them there quicker..!! Block my drive and I'll park behind you so you can't get out. It seems to have stopped most people. They only ever do it once.

@MrsJayy I've been told off for parking in someone's space too!

That diagram is nearly the same layout has our school, except where you have "one way", that is the rear entrance to our school and staff parking and deliveries.

When people park along the road, both sides, it can almost block the road off.Ive lost count of the times we've been on school trips and the coach can't get up the road on the way back ....People just will not move!
Which means we have to get the children out onto the road, which is a nightmare in itself.
People will turn up half to three quarters of an hour early, just so they can park right outside the school. The road opposite is a narrow, residential road. People think they are being helpful by putting two wheels on the grass verge....But it just cuts up the verge and dislodges the kirbstones.
It is just so dangerous, but there is seemingly nothing we can do. Every now and again the parking wardens or the police come and give tickets out, but people still argue the toss.
Worst of all are the parents who stand in the road, with their children and pushchairs, talking to someone sitting in the driver's seat of their car!!!

Hunters it is bonkers this woman was properly furious I did laugh at her and said i live here

What's with the goady parking threads?

I'm sure the local residents do have drives and garages, but that doesn't mean that they can get on or off them when people too damned lazy and entitled to walk around the corner are parked in their way.

I get a bus to work and just this morning (as usual) the whole bus full, approx. 25 people, were held up by parents dropping off their children at school as close to the gates as possible. Some of the people on the bus were going to be getting off the bus at the school stop, dropping off their own children.
The cars sit in the middle of the road waiting to be able to pull into the parking bays. The road is a residential road with no drive ways, older flatted properties, The school puts out a letter about being considerate every year but each parent only seems to think it applies to the other parents, having been on the Parents Forum I have seen the letters some of the parents send in protesting about their rights!
A child was sadly hit by a car when coming out of the school last year, not badly hurt luckily, and it still didn't stop the double parking and drivers pulling away without properly looking. So after a request by the school traffic wardens and police patrolled the access streets for a couple of weeks at drop off and pick up times but as soon as they stopped doing that the madness resumed.
Yes the school was there before some of the flats, but as it was built over 100 years ago it was never designed for car access

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.

If the school's plan is likely to lead to 'carnage', then surely, rather than just ignoring the school, shouldn't you engage with them and point out the practical problems it might cause?

Be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

Mehfruittea that sounds absolutely rubbish.

Can the school not commit to you parking in their car park, or having a disable space allocated?

Could someone (a TA/office staff member) not come out to collect your son in the mornings from your car so he can be in on time?

Would one of the other parents not help you? I would - although yours sound nasty with the FB stuff.

There must be a way for this to be eased for you?

I don't know why you posted in AIBU when you're clearly convinced that you're not BU and don't appear to be entertaining any suggestion to the contrary.

The school asked you not to do the thing. So your choices are, self righteously huff and puff and assert your RIGHT to do the thing, by hokey! Or suck it up and find an alternative thing to do. Well, we've seen what you chose. Any more huffing and puffing and houses will start getting blown down.

Thing is, like Hamlet said, there are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. As in, you don't know why the school's asked you not to do the thing. You don't know the reasoning behind it, or if there were complaints or accidents or safety studies that led to the request being made. You got the letter and I get that you're annoyed by it, but I can guarantee you that the school wouldn't have bothered spending the time and money to print them up and send them out for a merry lark. There will be a reason. You may not get to know said reason (email them and ask. They might tell you. They might not).

Point is, you can either be the bigger person and suck it up, or you can pull on your huffy knickers and have a nice big "I am so astounded and outraged" strop on the internet like a right twat. Choice is yours.

I think you should find somewhere else to park if possible, although as a fellow primary-school-dropper-offer I do have enormous sympathy for you.

Our local authority seems to waste a lot of money and ink encouraging parents to walk children to school, rather than looking at the root cause of the problem; in our case, children from 7 different villages travelling to one village primary school (amalgamated under cost saving measures) with school busses available only to a very select minority.

We live just under 3 miles from the school in a neighbouring hamlet. As much as I would love to spend upwards of 3.5 hours walking to/from the school every day, I have a job to get to. What I would like, is the option to pay for my children to get picked up/dropped off by a school bus. Currently, children under 5 are not eligible, children aged 5, 6 or 7 who live over 2 miles away are eligible (but their 4 year old and 8+ years siblings are not) and children aged 8+ are only eligible if they live over 3 miles away. Taking into account the fact that most the feeder villages are less than 3 miles away, and most children have siblings, very few families qualify for a place.

The school itself it lovely, but has no car park and is located within a web of narrow residential roads. We park about a 6 minute walk away, and it's still chaos finding a space.

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.

But you park considerately - does every other parent do the same as street? I get you want to defend your parking privileges but if there is bad parking in the street how do you think the school should approach it? Record number plates and get details from the DVLA and only ask those parents? Or was it not easier just to ask people not to park there?

What about those who bought a house and then 5 years later a school was built?

That isn't the case the vast majority of the time though is it. Usually people move into area where there is already a school.

Am I allowed to get pissed off with parents parking inconsiderately, sitting for ages with their engines running, driving at high speeds while my neighbour who has only lived here for 5 years has to put up with it?

I have already said that residents have every right to complain if residents are parked illegally or inconsiderately. I just don't have much sympathy for those who complain about volume of parking before and after school per se as they should have anticipated this before moving to the area.

I don't get how this "yeh? park where I want n you can't stop me" shit begins - do parents not realise that they are putting their own children at risk by perpetuating this stupidity?

It isn't rocket science, make time, use brain and distance - stroll to school and back!

OP, go and talk to school about it. Find out why they're asking this, and if they've thought of the consequences of alternatives.

But really, if I were you, I would find somewhere - possibly the other side of the main road - to park.

Another lollipop lady here(hi worra) as other people have said there is a difference between legal and inconsiderate parking. My crossing only has zigzags on the school side of the road, so strictly spreaking it is legal to park on the other side as long as they are not actually on the crossing,never mind the fact that it restricts my view and is dangerous.