to ask if you've heard of School Streets, and whether you think it's a good idea?

[Toomuchstuffwillkillme]

I just caught a bit of 'Clean Air for Kids' on R4 about School Streets in Hackney. Had not heard about it. (Must listen to whole programme properly in a bit!)
Seems like the sort of thing we should all be thinking about? I appreciate actually getting car-loving parents on board might be difficult, and there are probably a lot of issues that would need ironing out, but worth a try?
hackney.gov.uk/article/4379/School-streets

Thanks for the suggestion User time is so tight that I can't cycle it quickly enough (I've timed it), so until dc is slightly older, the car it is.

Funny how it's just assumed that other options haven't been investigated...

What is your point JacquesHammer? Is it that you would like everyone to drive everywhere and fuck the consequences?

Is it that you would like everyone to drive everywhere and fuck the consequences

Oh get a grip. Is is the posts where I said I would support the scheme with caveats?

My point is that - however much you get on your personal hobby horse - that there are people who are in a set of circumstances that makes car use not lazy but necessary.

User people move once they've got into the school, so catchment might be 500 metres but that doesn't mean every child in the school for the whole 7 years lives within that. Particularly in the upper years of primary when you discover that you don't stand a cat in hell's chance of getting into any decent secondary.

heymammy the trouble is that a lot of people don't investigate. Great that you did, of course, but plenty won't.

We didn't get into our local school (yup, we're in "catchment") yet I know people much further away who did (and without any of the criteria which quite rightly mean they should take priority).

But they must have qualified for some oversubscription criteria higher than closest distance if they live much further away from the school than you, and they got in and you didn’t?

Or the 'catchment' is a moveable feast - we got a place at DD's school that in previous and subsequent years we wouldn't have got, because hers was a very low sibling cohort.

Dh could bike to work and used to before our disabled child was born but now it doesn't fit in with the support he needs to give to our child. Some people have complicated and very stressful lives.

But they must have qualified for some oversubscription criteria higher than closest distance if they live much further away from the school than you, and they got in and you didn’t?

The only thing they did different from us was put only one school. I know the family well - they didn’t qualify for any of the oversubscription criteria. There was a substantial controversy over school places in our LEA that year. I - and a number of other parents - spent hours with our MP over it.

The following years the applications procedures were much less controversial although again this year number of people getting any of their choices has dropped again so will be interesting to see what occurs.

See, the worry for me personally is this. I have a mobility related disability. What I don’t have is a blue badge. So I’d not be exempted and yet there are many days that I can’t walk to the shop that is about 10 houses down my street. So whilst on the one hand I think it’s great and I also realise that there needs to be ‘proof’ of disability in the other I’d be screwed and unable to get my child to school.

It's possible to have a motability car and not be entitled to a blue badge.

Is this true? To get the car you need higher rate mobility component of DLA (or PIP equivalent) Having that automatically entitles you to badge. At least that’s how I understood it works.

what about and A road that’s a trunk road
If those roads are clogged with parked cars, the impact of closing it would be minimal. Up with us any town centre trunk road is a no stopping zone through anyway.

That's true Weeping there is an element of laziness involved for some car users and a desperation to park 3 inches from the school gate which gets on everyone's goat. All UserX had to do was ask, if they were genuinely trying to be helpful and promote change.

UserX you lost all credibility at "every entitled creep"

Your excuses mean nothing to anyone suffering from asthma or any child knocked down by a car rushing to get somewhere. Stop minimizing

I have a child with asthma. Aggressive stereotyping of car drivers as “lazy” and not trying hard enough is pointless. It’s far better to acknowledge the difficulties people might face rather than simply denigrate them.

I think if everyone only drove if they need to and parked sensibly and legally then it wouldn’t be an issue. But at most schools neither is the case.

I do wonder if primary schools could (maybe last term of year 6) somehow teach some sort of independent travel skills as this seems to be a big chunk of the problem at secondary level. I drove past a secondary school this morning and it was congensted with daft parking and driving BUT this school is on the main bus route so their is no reason for most of those cars if parents just let their little darlings walk or get on the bus which stops right outside the school!

To get a blue badge you need to have 8 points in the moving around category. You can get the enhanced rate for planning a journey but that doesn't entitle you to a blue badge even though you may be at risk of hurting yourself or other people when 'walking' down a street or on public transport.

As I said earlier, I had my mobility problems for 3 yrs before I was finally granted a blue badge.

Yep, same here. There's always a delay.

It’s far better to acknowledge the difficulties people might face rather than simply denigrate them.

Because that’s working so well at solving this problem.

Making excuses for other people in order to seem compassionate or knowledgeable doesn’t absolve you of personal responsibility.

I think if everyone only drove if they need to and parked sensibly and legally then it wouldn’t be an issue. But at most schools neither is the case.

I think your absolutely right, some people need to. From the parents at my children's school, the ones who "need" to, tend to park in the car park a short walk away and walk that little distance. The ones who don't "need" to, are the ones who block drives, park on kerbs and corners and park dangerously. They are also the ones who drive to nursery, 0.3 miles from the school, then drive the car to the school.

A little bit of me is slightly in awe of their cheekiness and the fact they just don't give a shit, blocking the road, cars beeping and they just do not give a shit - its certainly a skill!!!!

Because that’s working so well at solving this problem

Actually through the local schemes I’m involved with, we’re finding it really does work to good effect.

One of the worst offenders at our school lives 0.2 miles away according to google maps. Every afternoon she is parked up 20 minutes early to pick up her year 6 child.

Same child is often seen playing with friends outside school in evenings yet can’t be trusted to walk home alone?

Is this true? To get the car you need higher rate mobility component of DLA (or PIP equivalent) Having that automatically entitles you to badge. At least that’s how I understood it works.

You have to score 12 points or more for moving around to get a blue badge

To get a blue badge you need to have 8 points in the moving around category. You can get the enhanced rate for planning a journey but that doesn't entitle you to a blue badge even though you may be at risk of hurting yourself or other people when 'walking' down a street or on public transport.

Not true. I had a blue badge for almost a year before I even applied for pip. You don't have to be in receipt of disability benefits to qualify for a blue badge (unless it's changed in the last year)