AIBU to block in school mums parking on my driveway?

[Applepiesmum]

i live down the road from a school and during the school rush parents park everywhere it normally worse in the afternoon at 3pm

I work from home and usually park in the visitor pay outside my house so my partner can park on the driveway he gets home 3.30-4pm

however recently people have been parking on my driveway last week I caught someone pulling in knocked on their window and they argued with me saying they need to pick up their child eventually they did move but moved to where they were just half way blocking my drive way and halfway blocking my neighbor so no one could access it!

I didn’t bother confront them again but in future I’m just thinking to block them in… is that too petty

I have reported it to the school but all they’ve said is they’ve already asked parents not to block residents in so I’m not sure what else to do.

(if I did block anyone in it would only be for 30 minutes to cause a bit of stress and a lesson learned)

Adrift, I think querty is referring to people who don't need to drive but choose to. You obviously need your car for work, not every one does. Car culture is stressful

@adriftinadenofvipers

So, you're going to waste time and fuel to annoy a random person on the internet?

Right.

I love how people draw their own lines around the law to suit their purposes. Parking on someone's drive = ridiculous but blocking them in over their dropped curb = fine. 😂😂 Oh, and a school was built near me after I bought my house. Should I still "suffer the consequences"?

The road opposite my school have become quite militant (rightly so) about selfish parents parking. They take photos every time, go into school, call the police. At one point there were daily police patrols, which have since been passed over to the school caretaker who stands outside and shoos anyone on who parks where they shouldn't. We have received multiple emails reminding parents in no uncertain terms. Even after all this, yesterday I still saw someone parking across a drive, even then!

Every year, just before schools start, there is a flurry of posts from new Reception parents asking if it's too far for their new Reception child to walk a mile to school.

Every year, the responses are fairly evenly divided between people who are wondering why this is even a question and those who think this is akin to asking the child to go hiking in the Andes for a month.

A lot of people have become so used to their cars, that the idea of walking short distances, and making small changes to their routine to enable this, never even enters their heads.

(no, I don't now want a flurry of posts from people telling me their child's school is 20 miles away and they have 5 minutes between school drop off and starting work 10 further miles away. I accept some people have no choice. But the very fact your school is so far away, is very often a choice in itself!).

@Cocofuntime oh it's only 5 mins so that's okay! They don't own the path or road but if they have a dropped kerb they have a legal right to get on and off their drive. It's sheer laziness. If you're only 5 mins what's stopping you parking 2.5 minutes further up the road and being only 10 minutes?
I live close enough to our school to be able to walk and the days I work in the office I've arranged to start work based on what time I can get to work for once I've dropped my DD off. It might only be 5 mins but if you blocked me in it would either make me late for work or mean I have to jump on a toll road to get to work which costs me £6. It's not just about you is it?

@redskylight

I agree with every word.

Even those that don't live by their schools I'd like to know circumstances as to why. If they applied for their local school and didn't get in then I sympathise. If they didn't choose to apply for their local school and purposely chose to send their child to a school 5 miles away (unless their child has SEN) then sorry it's their own fault.

A newly built school local to us was planned without decent parking 'to encourage people to walk to school' forgetting the lived reality of 2 working parents and needing to drop off or pick up on the way to or from work.

I objected on that basis and fortunately more parking provision was included.

However it is a daily nightmare for parents and residents because it's too close to a main road and major junctions and of course entitled parents park blocking sightlines, pavements, roads, drives etc. Further evidence that the people who plan these things have no idea of what happens in reality when you take human nature into account.

In case car haters get their knickers in a twist about my pro car parking views I do the school run 5/10 legs and walk every single time. However if it's chucking it down I will drive to a nearer road, not blocking anyone's driveway because I have walked in the pouring rain before and we got so soaked their school shoes weren't dry the next day and I don't think sending kids into school in wet shoes just to make the car haters happy is the right thing for me to do.

I'm afraid to say your lived experience isn't the lived experience of everyone.

There is such a shortage of primary places in our area the new local school only offers to 0.2 of a mile due to new housing density and demand. Yes it should be 3 form entry but because it's a free school the local authority has no authority to compel them to.

Which means those who can literally see the school have to travel over 2 miles to the undersubscribed schools in the established suburbs which are full of empty nesters who originally benefitted from the schools on their doorstep.

So no, people aren't making 'choices' to send their child to a further away school. They would love to send them to the walking distance school. But piss poor planning forces them into their cars.

I know loads of parents who drive far less than 2 miles to pick their kids up from school. Often less than 1 mile.

We walk 1.7 miles each way and have done since my youngest was 5.

put up signs saying private property parking without permission will incur an immediate fine of £100, CCTV recording at all times - may make them think twice but seriously, where has society gone wrong that anyone thinks doing this is appropriate even in a dire emergency?

The phrase ‘I’d rather be kind than be right’ comes to mind here. Yes it’s wrong they are parking in your drive, of course it is, but do you really deliberately have to move your car off your drive and into a much needed on-road parking space at 3pm (the school pick up time), when your husband doesn’t get home until 3:30-4pm? Seems really pedantic to me. I’d be interested to hear the other side of the story here too… and again, I’m not condoning someone parking in your private space at all…but I can imagine it looks pretty petty to any onlookers seeing you move off a perfectly good parking space into the road just in time for school pick up.

I agree. It will almost looks as if you are trying to cause problems with the school pick parents.

Your neighbours must think you ask for everything you get.

And they clearly don't realise how bloody fun it is to pincer them in 🤣

Park like a twat and deal with the consequences.

I agree.

The solution to this issue doesn’t involve blocking in cars, laying nails in place to puncture tyres, clamping tyres, having cars towed, contacting the police/the school.

All the OP needs to do here is simply park in her own driveway.

Good one and then say in anyway you don’t have the keys. Explain that you’re organising a tow truck to collect her car for parking on your property. Then shut the door in her stupid face.

good idea - I missed the quote in my previous reply

Seriously, fuck being kind in this situation. The OP is entitled to park on the street. These CFs are not entitled to park on her drive. That's the difference.

OP, what you could do is park across your drive blocking them in, and when they inevitably ring your doorbell asking you to let them out, take a quick picture of them for the school and then pretend that the car blocking them in isn't yours either and you've called the police to have both cars towed. Then get your husband to move your car about three hours later.

can you park across your drive?

I can understand the difference between the two…I clearly say they are wrong for parking in her drive. ‘Entitled’ is a good word….

And do you understand the difference between a public parking space and a visitor's bay for the benefit of the residents of the street? Because we are talking about the latter. Nobody who doesn't have some sort of business in one of the houses in the street should be using the visitor's bays.

Of course I understand that. Are you always so condescending?

Well you seemed to be suggesting that the OP should park on her own drive and leave the visitor's pay for CFs who have no business using them, rather than using a visitor's bay which she is entitled to use, so that her husband will still be able to park when he gets home, even if all the other visitor's bays are occupied by CFs with no business being there.

Which is quite the hot take.