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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To be exasperated at school parking situation?

45 replies

hibbledibble · 02/02/2018 18:11

I walk past a local school to get my children to school every day. Despite there being lots of available safe spaces to park locally, parents choose to park on the pavement (often all 4 wheels on the pavement) rather than park 50-100m away from the school and walk.

It is really dangerous, both for the school's children who have to walk in the road as a result, and local parents.

I have contacted police, who have said it is up to the school to manage the situation. Fair enough, I understand they are very overstretched at the moment. Parking wardens don't attend despites requests.

School are saying it is nothing to do with them and it is for the council to manage.

Any ideas how to manage? It is really dangerous, and thesr parents are often aggressive as well, if asked to move off the pavement.

OP posts:

Behindthedoor · 03/02/2018 07:01

Nicknacky - this was a primary/junior school. I’ve just googled Ayr Grammar, could have been them, it was that sort of area.

NeverTwerkNaked · 03/02/2018 07:13

The funny thing is at my son’s school the most frequent contenders for the “parked like a twat” award all live within easy walking distance. We park a five minute walk away and then walk the rest - we walk past some of the parking idiots houses

Our local council and the police are planning a crackdown though. A major crackdown. (I know because i’ve been consulted on it through my job role).

NeverTwerkNaked · 03/02/2018 07:15

@Littlebitshort why not do what I do and park 5 mins walk away. You’re away from the parking mayhem then and your child gets some exercise

Lethaldrizzle · 03/02/2018 07:19

People are lazy fuckers

CigarsofthePharoahs · 03/02/2018 07:23

My son's school have made a bit of a fuss and now a parking warden does the rounds every now and again. I got to see him slap a ticket on some twat who'd parked on the zig zags. I wanted to cheer!
What annoys me even more is that behind the school is a public park with a large car park. It's a two minute walk, tops. And yet people clog up the road outside the school by parking like idiots.

insancerre · 03/02/2018 07:24

I walked past a parent who lives around the corner from school as she put her child in the car
We arrived at school at exactly the same time!
It's incredibly lazy and selfish behaviour like this that is damaging the environment and the health of our children

CuppaSarah · 03/02/2018 07:31

I'm amazed at these stories! I live next to a school and drive to dds school(moved house during summer hols so got nearest school with space) neither ever has dangerous, selfish parking! Everyone parks sensibly and legally.

Tbf our school is great at calling out bad parking. Even when an unrelated car accident happened nearby, they got loads of witnesses and caught the guy who hit and ran!

FrancisCrawford · 03/02/2018 07:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

WaterBuffaloDancing · 03/02/2018 07:59

My children's primary opened in the late 1800's and is surrounded by Victorian terraced houses with no driveways. Therefore the residents all park on the road too.

Our school has a 5 minute walking zone to try to push parents to walk however the school is surrounded by dual carriage ways and busy A roads meaning realistically there is little choice with parking. So parking is on residential streets causing issues with the residents.

Although a lot of parents live very close to the school (10-15 minute walk) a huge amount drive as they need to go straight to work afterwards.

The issue is it is one of the biggest primary schools with a 3 class intake with a preschool too so over 700 children are in the school. You can just imagine how bad it is.

jcsp · 03/02/2018 08:01

I live on the same road as the secondary school I used to teach at.

When working there I never saw the congestion as I got to work before it kicked off and left well after pupils had gone home.

The school did try to ease the situation, suggesting that pupils could walk an extra 100 yards and that parents could drive down one road and up another. But many ignored these suggestions.

The worst time is from 3pm. Parents arrive early to bag their spot, many park with wheels on the pavement or opposite another waiting parent.

Many then leave the engine running for 20+ minutes.

Eventually their loved, and under exercised ones walk up to the car, phone in hand to be semi greeted by their parent, also with a phone in their hand.

If it’s cold wear a coat.

If it’s hot open a window.

habibihabibi · 03/02/2018 08:06

The road my kids school in on is very busy so the police are on the crossings every morning and everyone lawfully parks.
Come afternoon pick up it's an absolute shit show of double and footpath parking, lane blocking and reversing up the slip road because the police aren't there

Pleasedontdrawonyoursister · 03/02/2018 08:46

We have one of those signs outside my DD school, unfortunately it makes no difference. It is ALWAYS the same parents parking on the yellow lines or blocking driveways ‘because they’ll only be a few minutes’. It’s really annoying and I wish the school would take pictures or number plates and publish them, I think that’s a really good idea. I must admit I occasionally have to put two wheels on the pavement in order to leave enough room for cars to get through but the pavements are wide enough so doesn’t hold anyone up.

WhataLovelyPear · 03/02/2018 10:30

We have this problem with the secondary school my DC attend. To be fair, a high proportion of the pupils (including my own) come from surrounding villages so walking isn't an option. There's a bus laid on by the council but this year it would have cost me £800 in fares, so I take them in the car. Mostly I park away from the school to pick them up, not for noble environmental reasons but because it means I can turn round without risking mowing down a horde of heedless teens and I'm ahead of the parental traffic jam when it's time to leave.
My mum works in a school down a small cul-de-sac so you can imagine the level of chaos they had. The school tackled it with a triple-pronged attack: they got the police to come down and issue parking tickets, they sent letters to all the parents, the head himself (who was popular) went and spoke to the various parkers and they kept bringing it up in assembly so the kids got on board.

rcit · 03/02/2018 10:40

Bollards/railings would prevent cars mounting the pavement. But tbh I can see why people do this. It saves quite a bit of time and if you save 10mins at school, then that 10mins can easily translate into 30mins on a rush hour commute (being done 10mins earlier avoiding a traffic build up.) I don’t do it, before anyone starts flaming me but I do think it’s worth trying to understand why it is done rather than just saying “ignorant wankers”. And if you understand why it’s done then maybe you can take steps to address it.

rcit · 03/02/2018 10:43

Our school did publish number plates. Didnt help.

BluthsFrozenBananas · 03/02/2018 10:48

Thank you to the PP who mentioned “fixmystreet”, I’d never heard of it before. I just used it to put in a complaint about illegal double yellow line parking from parents dropping their children off at the private nursery on the corner of my road.

The road is extremely narrow and parking on the double yellows forces traffic up onto the pavement, add to this my Road is a popular pedestrian cut through for children walking to school in the mornings. The most ridiculous thing is there’s a car park a two minute walk away where you can park free for thirty minutes, but no, people have to do their pick ups and drop offs from directly outside the nursery door.

MuminMama · 23/03/2018 12:09

The people parking on the yellow zigzags outside our school are driving me mad. It's so unsafe for the children crossing.

I've contacted the council but they are in no rush to help, and the police don't even answer the phone. I was wondering about leaving notes on the windscreens - anyone tried that?

MuminMama · 23/03/2018 13:03

I do think it’s worth trying to understand why it is done rather than just saying “ignorant wankers”. And if you understand why it’s done then maybe you can take steps to address it.

We need several of you in government. :)

MiaowTheCat · 23/03/2018 13:08

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

FleurDelacoeur · 23/03/2018 13:11

I live very close to a school too and standards of parking have got markedly worse in the 10 years we've lived here. We have a very peculiar breed of parent and child round here, they are so delicate that they can't walk more than about 20 feet and disintegrate in the rain... People park across my drive, or right up to it on either side and opposite so I can't get out. Park on pavements, right up to junctions, across entrances - all because their precious little pickles can't walk.

School has no power in this and it's wrong for the police to say that. School can ask nicely for parents to park considerately and think about local residents and our school does - things improve for ten seconds then it's back to selfishness at the first spot of rain. We did have a spell of having one of the local community officers attending school twice a day and standing in a visible position - they weren't actually DOING anything but merely the presence of an officer in a high-vis jacket totally changed the parking behaviour.

That to me says that parents KNOW they are parking like selfish twats and don't care.

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