Idiots parking illegally on school crossing, should I report or not?

[DuchessSuperFantastic]

It happens at every school
This morning dropping off our grandchildren, I noted again people stopping on the 'no parking yellow zone' outside the school gates. Then there were two other vehicles, one a Ford Focus and another a small van that parked on the yellow zigzags. I took pics of one - it was there for a good 7 minutes

I recall a few weeks ago a parent taking pics of offending vehicles and I heard second-hand that the lady sent the info to the council.

These people are not only careless/ignorant but a mass DANGER to the children crossing. The school has two front gates about 100 feet apart one is for the 4 to 7 year olds and the other for the juniors 7/11 I think

People shoot down the side road as well and it's often parents/guardians who should know better
At times I wonder which cracker they got their drivers licence in as any fool knows you should not stop/drop off, pick up, park on these crossings during shcool times as set out by the rules

I'm not sure if they get any points and or a fine and considering if to report or not. I do want to report and hope they get points and a fine, lesson taught IMO

(Have you reported anyone and do you know if action was taken and if so, what)

AIBU if I report these people?

Have you spoken to school? That’s where I’d start.

You’ll never get people to be reasonable at school drop off and pick up time. There are plenty of posts from people who can’t get into and out of their drives, which are blocked by parents. Poor and dangerous parking happens so often that it becomes the norm.

There’s a drop off zone by our local primary. People park there all day. It’s just accepted now. There are vans and cars that regularly park right on a junction too, so obstructing the view of oncoming traffic. I complained to the head man for highways at the council. No acknowledgement and no reply.

Put it in writing to the school's headteacher. Emphasise the danger it poses to the children.

Report. We can message a local PCSO on Facebook. They'll have a wander past at school time.

I would at least send the photos to the school.

I think there should be an additional penalty for drivers who break the rules near a school, say an additional £50 penalty on top of the normal fine.

Yes. Photos and emails to go to police non emergency PCSO team, local council, councillors and school head.
I never had any time for idiots like that.

also pop them up on yplac on twitter

WarmWinterSun

Oh, good idea!

Hello. I did a few weeks back via phone and email but did not disclose my details. They said they could only do "so much" and have every so often emailed parents/etc about parking issues.

I will try ad get the council to step up patrols during school times and ticket people even if they just drop off or pick-up kids in the zones

I'm thinking what would happen to the illegally parked person if there was an accident at that time.

IMO, we should all be proactive and report and report to the coucil who manage parking. I'll try and find out if sending dated and timed pictures will ensure follow up and if so, what would that be.

Car parks in general have APNR cameras and people get finned for just waiting on yellow lies even though the road is quiet and hardly anyone is there, so why not schools, especially outside primary and junior schools?

Having read the few posts, I'll ask our children who are adults to help me send these pics with clear time and date included.

I'm looking up coucils website and the police website how to report incidents like this. Thanking you all for your support and help

Edit -Btw - I don't belong to Facebook/etc but will report as above

Call your local council and ask for the email of the traffic enforcement department. If you email the photos over they can get a warden over, probably not at the time but might send one over for the next drop-off/pickup time.

We have an awful situation at our school, the lack of awareness of some people really shocks me.

Speak to the school and get them to get a traffic warden down at morning and afternoon pickup. Our primary did this and ticketed the whole bloody lot of them. It soon stopped. The councils should put cameras up to capture the rogue parkers, surely it can't be a difficult thing to do. It would all stop I the blink of an eye

Some years ago .our School lollipop lady was hit by a car on the zebra crossing! very dangerous .Luckily she was OK ,but the guy said he was in a hurry due to School holidays and had 3 children with him !

The school really can't do anything apart from ask the parents not to, which the parents then ignore. I'm not sure what pp suggesting talk to the school expect them to do?

Traffic police in some areas have online reporting forms for non-emergency issues, but you'll need a video.

And also submit video to the Local Authority, depends where you live as to whether it's council or unitary.

Good luck I report to the school, the council, the police on a monthly basis about the downright dangerous parking and reckless driving at my granddaughters school. The school sends out a considerate parking reminder every so often but say that is all they can do.
On one occasion I even dragged a PCSO I met walking nearby to show her the chaos.
She arranged a letter to be sent out and a random patrol takes place occasionally but nothing makes any difference.
It is a rural area and there is only a footpath on one side of the road, it’s rendered impassable from half an hour before drop off and collection time due to vehicles parked on it.
Those of us who walk have to walk on the road, including wheelchairs and anyone pushing a pram/ pushchair and there are near misses so frequently with vehicles pushing past I dread going past every day.

Sorry for the rant but I have done it this morning and I am seething as usual and needed to vent to someone other than the dog who hears it every day 😀

Unfortunately this type of parking is a problem at many many schools and it's incredibly difficult to do anything about this. In the borough where I work, each school is entitled to one visit per term from a parking enforcement officer, which has virtually no effect. Schools also don't have the staff to police parking outside their premises. I work for several primary schools who have a really serious parking problem, and they have all tried raising this in weekly newsletters, naming and shaming, and writing to offending parents when they know their identity. There is a particular problem at one of my schools where parents park across the driveway of a resident who lives opposite on a daily basis; she has serious medical issues and there have been three occasions that I'm aware of (so probably more) where her son hasn't been able to get his car out of the drive to get her to hospital. On a couple of occasions, parents have actually parked on residents' driveways. When approached by residents, the drivers are frequently rude and abusive, and have been threatening at times. The premises manager and headteacher at this school have both tried approaching parents at the start and end of the day to ask them to move but are just met with abuse and parents who refuse to move 'because they will only be there for a few minutes'. Schools have no authority to take action about parents who park on the zig zags, across driveways, etc, and unfortunately the police don't have the time or resources to do anything most of the time. It's a really difficult problem.

Thanks all. I've been searching the web etc.

I was chatting to a forum buddy on another site and what they did is have a group of people that started to report these dangerous drivers and the dangerous parking stopped as it was the same group of idiots breakig the rules

Come new year term, new parents/children it started again and they started to report tot their council and police and they are sure these parking offenders got fines/points as they stopped within a few weeks of reporting.

Important point when reporting the offenders, report within 48 hours or so.

Taking pics is easier said than done as my buddy told me some of these parking offenders don't like people taking pics and reporting them. TBH, I was scared when taking pics as I feared the fools to return but thankfully they did not

The traffic warden used to hang around at drop off/pick up times to prevent this when mine were in primary.
Lots of councils have a ‘report problem parking’ link on their website.

Thank you - I've reported the dangerous fools.

Report them. Parents have hit children at our school with their cars, hasn’t stopped parents driving and parking dangerously.

Ill genuinely never get how parents can be so inconsiderate and awful, I guess it’s ok to hit other people’s kids with their car?

I have been known to tap on window and ask them to move. This only works if you are REALLY smiley and friendly, even if inside you are thinking “what a prick”.

Otherwise agree with the advice to track down the local PCSO and loop school into any emails/calls - they will appreciate the help.

Thank you for being so proactive.

I did when some prick parked right over the top of the raised crossing. I took a photo and told school, who told me to ring the police so I did. A psco phoned me back, took the reg no. and knocked on their door.

I think some parents would drive their kids to the classroom door if they could.

Unfortunately councils can be so slow to respond to this.

local school to me has taken to slapping a big a4 sheet of paper on windows of dangerous parkers. With information about the law on parking. The dangers and stats of incidents. It’s slowly but surely working.

Many years ago when my girls were in primary school I saw a car double parked on the narrow school road forcing cars onto the pavement right by the gates. I watched this idiot for a while and then went over to tell him what I thought, his reply was 'it's raining'. I suggested he get an umbrella like everyone else. He didn't care so I said I would report him to the police, told me to go ahead. So I did. Later that day the police phoned me to say they had spoken to him and warned him not to park there again.

Thank you all for your support

If more of us reported these careless, entitled people and the cops gave them points on their licence and fines ad or the council CEO gave them fines, I am pretty certain we'd see a lot less dangerous, careless parking at school gates/zigzags.

It should be 6 points no messing