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 😕

This doesn’t happen now, but there was one parent who turned up at about 2/2.15 and would leave their car running until pickup at 3.15…. Incredible really! Why?! Just why?!

Id be tempted to take a photo and send it to Just Stop Oil 😊

I live opposite a SEN school & have for most of my life. There is quite a bit of traffic at times but generally it is well Organised and no awful parking. The adjacent road that my child’s school is on, is a thing of nightmares 😱 I’m lucky I can walk. People regularly park in, across or totally in the way of residential driveways. The road is narrow so cars mount the pavement to get through. Kids who are running ahead of parents run out into the road & so many near misses. Even the few roads around the school
are treacherous!

There is no human more selfish than a parent at school drop off
Most who park badly are just fucking lazy, they'll all claim work and time and use excuse after excuse to drive and park as close as possible but in primary I'd say almost all live within a 5-10 min walk anyway and could easily walk if they made the effort - or at the very least park slightly further away and safely

one things I've noticed more lately is grandparents picking up and parking terribly engines running for 20 min pumping out fumes, parked on pavements, parked on junctions etc so it's not even work commitments and time in their case it's just not wanting to walk an inch 🤦‍♀️

people need to get a grip

and I think parking police need to be out in force around schools issuing tickets but they won't

I live opposite a SEN school & have for most of my life. There is quite a bit of traffic at times but generally it is well Organised and no awful parking.

I imagine it's different with a SEN school though. Many kids being brought in by taxi for a start. Perhaps they have vehicular access to drop off areas within the school grounds that parents of kids in mainstream school do not?

Aren't the LEA supposed to provide transport if the school is more than 2 miles away by a safe route (primary) or 3 miles away (secondary)

@DdraigGoch I can't quite remember the details of the thread and why that wasn't happening.
This is the thing I dislike about the English school system - everyone should just go to their nearest/catchment school. It would make so many people's lives easier.

I have been known to turn and wait, even if I'm blocking the road up, to turn to my property (we live opportunities a primary school). Most of the time the person puts their hand up and reversed back a bit so I can get in. Though it is a single yellow line and they usually have no reason (blue badge) to park there. I have thought about collecting car details.

There'd be no bankrupt councils if they went ticketing by schools!

Do you live in my village as it sounds like the same location! We’ve just had another email from the school about it. We walk our DC as it’s not that far and the (free!) car park they are supposed to use and then walk from is about 1/3 of the way along our walk. It takes us 8 minutes door to gate (if toddler is in pushchair, 25 if they aren’t 🙈🤣)

It would actually take us longer to drive due to all the traffic/car dodging!

I also live near a school and have done for about 20 years. No, it wasn't obvious it would be an issue.

It was obvious that it would be busy twice a day.

However, it was not obvious how ridiculously bad the driving and parking would be. For the first few years I was working FT so didn't notice and I was a school governor and thought people were exaggerating about the stupid behaviour in the meetings.

Then I changed jobs and was around much more and did much more WFH.

People were not exaggerating. I live at one end of the road so don't see the worst of it but my goodness people are stupid, especially when it is raining. I also don't live in a village with one place to park - there are plenty of roads where people could park, but no, they've all got to squash into my road because it's nearer. Sometimes it's gridlock. I've taken pictures because it's actually quite funny to watch. And of course everyone has an SUV which means the available space is taken up even faster.

It's also true that councils should send all their traffic wardens to schools at drop off and pick up time - they'd make a fortune!

Unfortunately our parking enforcement has moved from the district council to the county council, so I don't think that they even bother coming to our town now.

What I can't ever get to grips with is that parents will protect their children, drive them to school, not leave them home alone till they are 16, watch their every move, but then drive down the pavement and put the lives of other children in danger of being killed by a two tone machine - that could end them up being imprisoned for killing a child?

@MikeRafone Because they only care about their own.

I also live on a street near a school. It is only in the last 10 or so years that people have become so inconsiderate about where they park and many people have lived in their homes much longer than 10 years. Fortunately the school near me will always support the neighbours.
If someone was walking on my garden I would plant holly or brambles.

Our school had similar and they now have the headteacher and a tribe of year 6 'Minicops' telling off the parents parking in the cul de sac, and a traffic warden patrolling the double yellows and zigzags. The appalling behaviour never fails to astound me

I used to live on a street that had a primary school at the end. The mornings were a nightmare trying to get to work, but I vividly remember one morning when I was quite unwell and pregnant with my first daughter, I had awful morning sickness and had to call out sick from work. I had gone to the pharmacy as soon as it opened at 8:30 to pick up my prescription for anti-nausea pills and when I came home there was a car parked on my drive with a man on the phone just getting out of his car and getting his kids out of the back. I felt so sick and drained that all my patience had dissipated and I just pulled into the space left in front of his car on my drive. When I got out he shouted that he’d only be a minute but I ignored him, locked my car and went inside and locked the door. He rang the doorbell so many times but I was occupied with getting sick so I ignored him as best I could, he started shouting in the letterbox calling me every name under the sun and saying he had to get to work. Everything died down after that and when I looked out the window, he was sitting in his car on the phone. I went for a lie down and drifted off. Had a knock on the door about an hour and 15 mins later from the police asking if I could move my car and let him out, so I did. I never encountered that problem again.

The vast majority of parents work. I live close enough to walk my kids to school but wpuld mean I'm late for work compared to driving and being able to leave for work straight from school.

The UK needs to set up walking buses with parent rotas and "school streets" around schools (however, this will only work if school street residents themselves are prepared to accept restrictions on their own cars at certain times, so I suppose it will never work). British transport policy is a mess.

Which is fine, if you drive and park legally, safely and considerately.

@user1477391263 well the "still in the trial stage" school street scheme where I live has just had new road signs put up that say the wrong information and the council dustcart drove down during the "forbidden" time this morning.
So it's going well.....not 😂🙄

We have this near our street/school. Plus a new pedestrian and cycle zone so you need to get a permanent permit to park there. Still doesn’t stop the selfish arse parents who park near the school and at all times of the day. Before this I had one regular dad, charming SUV driver (I’ve got one now) where his child would get in fights and kick cars including mine, which was older then. I said more than once “please don’t do this”. Loads of abuse back. The one time I lost it the dad found me on a local street WhatsApp group and called me out there! Either they’ve moved now or I think the child now in secondary. As a pp said it’s definitely got worse in past 10 years. This dad, I saw him at another time going into his house and yes, he lives a 5 minute drive from the school but couldn’t be arsed to walk there!

So what? Get up earlier and walk your DC to school. Healthier all round.

@Gonnagetgoingreturnsagain the problem with that is many schools don't open the gates until 10/15 minutes before the start time. If she walked the children to school earlier what's she going to do - leave them standing on the pavement outside the school gate?

I didn't mean that. I meant get up earlier so you can walk the kids to school and be there then. And even if they open the gates 10-15 mins before the start time then you're there then?