I live in a road with a school

[Truffle55]

Apologies in advance for the rant and slightly long message…

I live in a road with a primary school at the end. I’ve lived here for 25 years and I totally understand that parents need to get their kids to school - I too, need to do the same.

But…

Recently the behaviour of the parents dropping off and picking up their DC has been, frankly awful.

I have come home from picking my DC up from school to find someone parked on my drive! And now, someone thinks it’s “ok” to park across the T-junction into the road. This means I have to drive around them and into cars coming out of the road (from dropping off/picking up DC) to get onto my driveway (assuming no one is “borrowing” it).

I do understand people need to take their kids to school, I have to do it too! But really? Why are they so inconsiderate? When I pick my DC up from school I park away from the school… and we have an agreed process if I’m not there due to not being able to park SAFELY (I do get that DC is at secondary school and its easier to do this).

However, the parking by my house is getting out of control - the person who parks across the junction lets the children get into the car - roadside…. This is just dangerous!?

I’m at the point now that I just push through the cars because I feel “I live there, and I have right of way” - but that makes me uncomfortable.

And, let’s not talk about the addition is of an ice cream van!

Anyway, I’m considering contacting the school or even the police to see if they can do anything - sadly, I really feel, it is an accident waiting to happen 😕

I would contact both the school and the police.

If someone parked across my drive I would probably park across it blocking them in.

I’d talk to the school. There’s lots of issues with parents parking around my DCs primary school and after the residents on the street complained they’ve now got a partnership with the local PCSOs who are there before and after school and giving out parking tickets.

YANBU.

When DS was at primary, the head was constantly sending out messages about parents parking inconsiderately (I'm a non driver so I wasn't guilty) but I can imagine how annoying it was for residents.

Maybe contact the council and the school.
When things got really bad at our primary parking wise, a traffic warden would show up a few days randomly. Whether this was due to complaints directly from residents, or whether the school contacted them after getting sick of daily complaints from residents, I don’t know.

If someone had to cheek to park in my drive I would block them in and go for a long walk

I feel your pain. I did speak to the Head about it, she sympathised and told me she'd had to go out as a group of parents were intimidating a parking warden. They are crazy, they park across drives, park on bends. I asked one woman to stay off my garden and she got very indignant, it is narrow so she'd parked on the kerb and we don't have a pavement so she had to walk across my garden when she got out of the car. It is madness.

I'm sure we will be told we knew what we were getting into buying near a school but our school used to be one form entry and now it is 3 form entry with a nursery so you've got more than 3 times the number of children and a wider catchment area so fewer in walking distance.

Not saying this is you but at my DS school the locals are absolute wallies. I honestly think they really enjoy vilifying the parents who park near the school. It’s a small village and for half an hour a day roughly 40 cars come into the village, park, pick their kids up and bugger off again. If it wasn’t for the school and kids coming in from the nearest town there would be no village shop, no pub and very few young families living there.

I live directly opposite both a secondary school and a primary school. The behaviour of drivers is reckless and shocking given they are there for the same reason as everyone else - their children - but they DGAF about anyone else's safety. There used to be a lollipop lady but she got the chop due to school funding cuts. There is no zebra crossing for the 1000+ kids using the area. Complaints to the schools and council fall on deaf ears. It's clear that nothing will happen until a child is killed, which I see as a sad inevitability.

This happened to my uncle - he lived across a secondary school and parents would consistently park in such a way as to block his driveway. Complaints were made to the school and local authority. The local authority has now made the area a "red route" and no one is allowed to park on the road during school opening and closing times. The local authority regularly patrol the streets and issue fines to drivers who do not comply.

Do you live on Grenville drive op?

The issue for me is, that I come into and out of the road at the same time as school drop off and pickup - the days I go into the office I see this behaviour only once a day but the the days I’m wfh it’s twice a day. The things that have really frustrated me are people parking on my own drive way and the person who parks on the corner of the road obstructing all other cars, as this is just plain dangerous.

Most people are very kind, but again, it’s few inconsiderate ones that cause the issues.

No I don’t lol .. no clue where that is but if it’s anything like here - I feel your pain!

Solidarity. I've even verbally abused by a Dad after I asked him to move from in front of my drive so I could get in. My poor toddler who needed the toilet wet himself. I emailed the school to complain and I've never had a response. We got that it would be busy when we bought the place, what I was horrified at is the entitled, aggressive and rude behaviour of parents. I guess a reflection of the deterioration of society.

I can only imagine how awful it must be for residents.
I don't think ours is too bad- it's on a bus route and it's a shared drive of a high school and juniors which really only teachers and minibuses go up. If you need to drop in the school playground you can get school permission.
I'm lucky enough to walk most of the time but the ones that boil my piss are the ones that park on the yellow zig zags.
The amount of times I have literally nearly been run over is ridiculous and I end up spending time acting like half a lollipop lady to help kids across.
Luckily the police do drive round every few months and dish out tickets and fines- I think it's a great deterrent as putting it on the newsletter weekly does nothing.

What I expect living near a school

• lots of people morning and afternoon
• noise of children playing
• increased traffic twice a day

What we get but shouldn't

• parents mounting the kerb to drive over the pavement
• children nearly getting hit by cars driving over the grassed areas
• rubbish thrown onto gardens
• parking on double yellow lines
• parking in resident only bays (but at least these are parked safely)
• driveways being blocked
• parking blocking a shops fire exit
• lollipop lady being driven at
• parents driving while on phones

One day, a child will get hurt. Until then, the school, parking enforcement and police are only listened if they are physically there. I've seen parents get tickets...and park in the same place the next day

This shouldn't be the "price" of living near a school.
Saying that... I have slight sympathy as there is a lack of safe parking, which is a planning failure. (The school PAN increased 8 years ago, so the school has only been full for two years.)

You need a penguin bollard on the driveway

I live on a road with a school and people actually park on the tactile crossings. Makes me rage so much - driveways are blocked, double yellows are parked on etc which is also bad, but there is a special place in hell reserved for those who park on a crossing designed for blind people IMO.

It's not ok to park inconsiderately/illegally but assuming the school was there first I do wonder why people live on school streets and then complain. Surely it's obvious there will be an issue.

Of course you should report to the school and police. Name and shame. My kids’ school headmaster would email all the parents with a photo of the car and ask them to move it. The school hated pissing off residents.

I’ve had this from a man “I’ll move in a minute”. Fucking move now you prick! What if I need to leave to get one of my children to a and e? I just go out and take photos of number plates and shout at people and they think I’ve lost it (and maybe I have) but IDGAF anymore.

I feel your pain OP and have the same here. The entitlement, selfishness and downright fucking stupidity is mind boggling.

No, no it’s not. Because you don’t expect people to be THAT entitled. More traffic at those times? Yes! People parked in al the legal bays? Of course - that’s why we bought a house with a driveway, so we would always have parking. Had no idea people were such selfish pricks. But then my own children hadn’t started school then and frankly the parking at their school is just as entitled and shitty.

The thing is it’s not the school who you should complain to - the teachers aren’t parking across your drive and they have no police powers to control what grown adults do. Teachers are responsible for educating children, not telling grown adults how to behave.

We live in a road that has a primary school at the bottom, I’ve lost count of the number of people that parked like inconsiderate idiots. After residents complained to the school and council (over a few years) and the near miss of a child getting run over, the school is now trialing a new scheme where the road is closed to none residents during school run times. Parents can walk or cycle down our road however only residents, blue badges or business vehicles are aloud to drive down it. This has been really positive and the road is now much safer.

I live by a primary school and the council have just turned the streets into a "school street" banning traffic from certain times.
This is a bigger pain in the arse than the school parents.
If you own a car you get a residents permit to allow you to drive down but it also means no taxis (which I rely on) and no delivery vans (which a lot of people rely on).
Essentially for several hours a day residents lives have to be put on hold because of the school.
Be careful what you wish for if you complain.