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 😕

There is a primary near me, there is a rugby club 2 minutes walk away which has tons of available parking and are happy for parents to use it. Do they use it, do they fuck. Instead they park dangerously all over the verges next to the school so their precious kids don’t have to walk more than 3 feet.

my friend lives on a fairly long road, but would take you only a couple of minutes to walk the full length. There’s some parents who drive from the top of the road to the bottom (where the school is) and then illegally park on the corner.

People are literally insane when it comes to parking near school.

Why don't the councils just send a parking attendent round every month or so ?

It can't cost that much money. They know when the problems are and my guess is that they will make enough from fines to fund it.

Haha, there's no way that is a 16 min bike ride for me!

This is the issue at my son’s school. Huge road full of parking. Safe parking. People absolutely cannot be arsed to walk more than 1 minute to the school so there are plenty of spaces available on either end of the road but everyone is on double yellows and zig zags.

A 20 minute bike ride then, what ever, it is quicker than walking and often quicker than cars depending on where someone lives

Unfortunately this happens at most primary schools. It's awful.

My old primary school the social ub which is a6 minute walk away offered to help by letting parents use their car park. Did the parents use it... like he'll they did. People are rude and inconsiderate and think their time is more important than others. The 2 schools my kids have been at have had repeated emails from heads asking parents not to do this.

I personally think councils should double yellow lines or provide permits to those who live there, (free of charge) and send a ticket inspector round. They would sharply stop.

We live between two schools on our street (a primary and a secondary), and it's been a problem for years. I'm not proud of it, but after I had an emergency with one of our dogs and couldn't get out of our driveway to take her to the vet, I got pissy. That night, I printed up a bunch of copies of Highway Code 243, and started duct-taping them to the rear window of every car that blocked our drive.

I'm not entirely sure of the mechanism by which it did so, but after a week of doing that word seemed to get around and we didn't have the problem for the rest of that school year. The following year, it started again and a couple of the other residents started doing it too. Parents complained, both to us and to the school, and were promptly told that they were being twats and we haven't had any trouble for the last four or five years.

Incidentally, complaining to the council did absolutely nothing. They just sent a parking enforcement officer up at about 2pm, despite being told the problem is before 9am and after 3pm, who then said "Meh, can't see a problem here". What a shock.

A relative lives on a small cul de sac of 14 homes by a school for 50 years. School was built in the early 90s.

Only this year parents are parking on the driveways. Neighbours have asked parents not parking on driveways. Parents - usually mothers with a gobby attitude scream I have my rights. No you don’t. Parking on driveways without permission is trespassing.

Only people who are visiting or trades people doing jobs at home can park. Sometimes if you are away on holiday and a neighbour is having a big gathering, you can let guests to park in your drive.

Now the 14 properties in the cul de sac have bollards installed - electric and folding down ones.

Yup, we have a car park with plenty of spaces outside a local Co-Op which is 0.2 miles from school (I just checked on Google Maps). Most parents do not use it because 0.2 miles is far too far for their precious darlings to have to walk.

The only way to teach parents is to hit them in the pocket - fine them!

There is a high school about two miles from here that has a lay-by outside it. I drove past it at 10am and returned at 2pm. Both times - the same cars were parked and a parent was in them. The traffic is bad outside the school and traffic lights on road. The lay by has room for 5/6 cars.

WTF are parents doing in the car when their DC are at school? They are the most pathetic people.

Air conditioning or heating/heated seats probably. No excuse IMO

Mainly the issue is that school catchments have changed and many people now drive rather than have a school within walking distance. Also many parents work where before there were many more SAHMs who all walked there and back.

When many schools were built society was like above. The world has changed, the school catchment has changed, more people work and more people drive.

I would never now buy a house anywhere near a school, however good the house.

People just don't care, have any manners or empathy towards others. So sad.

One thing all schools should be encouraged to do is to work with the local community to identify safe "park and stride" locations.

It can be quicker to park 15 minutes away and stride to school than to drive round and round looking for a space.

The school can identity JRSOs (Junior Road Safety Officers) pupils aged 9/10 who get training and wear hivis to patrol the area. (Copying an idea from local area)

Residents with parking could offer spaces - at a cost and give out "parking passes". May as well make some money from the nuisance!

You could partner up with a neighbour - share their space and offer yours, obviously sharing the income and aiming not to block/inconvenience anyone.

School could try and arrange a car pool amongst parents.

There must be loads of things to try.

YANBU. I don’t live on a road with a school on it but I always feel very sorry for people who do. If anyone wants to witness the epitome of human selfishness and laziness, just try driving down a road with a school on it at pick up/drop off time. People parked across driveways, on double yellows, half on the curb, next to junctions, on corners… I’ve seen some outrageous stuff. It makes the area so incredibly dangerous for children and parents trying to cross the road, but you can bet the parents that park illegally/selfishly/inconsiderately would be the first to complain if their child was the one being put at risk.

Honeslty, witnessing this sort of stuff really doesn’t help my misanthropy 😂

I used to live beside a school . It was busy at school run times , but we knew to avoid it , and the parents seemed fairly pleasant. It was worse at sports day/ school concert as the parents parked up for longer.

The school my dc go to is absolutely chaos. The parents are so entitled. There is a council parking control officer there regularly, but they have other schools to attend too, so aren't ther often. The 4×4 drivers have taken to parking on the grass which is now a mud bath.
We are a short walk away and get parents parking near us. I fear that any restrictions closer to school would push the inconsiderate parkers closer to us.

The parents don't care they are doing something wrong by inconsiderate parking ,they only care if they are penalised. And then they are full of excuses.

The school in my road made an arrangement with the local community centre so parents could park in their car park and there would be a walking bus up to the school five minutes away. It folded very quickly as no one used it.

A local supermarket is also willing to let parents park there, the difference between parking outside my house and parking at the supermarket would be two minutes but those two minutes are too precious to waste so they continue the madness.

The local senior school is next to a pub/hotel which has also agreed to parking for the school, again hardly used although the kids would have a 2 minute walk with no road to cross. Parents would rather queue to park at the gate. Their children will melt in the rain you know.

alternatively, when you've blocked them in, crack open a bottle of wine and when they knock the door, tell them you can't drive as you're under the influence...🍷😉

a joke obviously but yes, contact the school with details of the registration number etc and leave a note on their windscreen! CFers!!😡

I live in a road with a school
Next door on the same side of the road as the school is a free carpark which is empty all day
People don't use it
They park the other side of the road on a junction, dragging children across between cars on a bend. I mean WTF why?!

Cropped it but
Left building has free carpark
Playground you can see next to it
People won't even walk that far

I feel your pain, we have the same problem. Occasionally I’ve blocked a few of them in when I’ve pulled up attempting to park even vaguely near my house. It’s so satisfying watching them get all worked up from my window and clearly too embarrassed to come and ask me to move so they just sit and wait for someone else to move. Don’t want to get blocked in? Then fuck off somewhere else reasonable.

I would suggest you contact your local councillors and the cabinet/executive members of your local council in charge of roads/schools and safety and suggest to them that your road becomes a school street. This means that only residents and other authorised persons (eg emergency services) can access the road, usually around school start and finish time for an hour. These can be either controlled by a gate or cameras and make the street much safer for the children and mean that parents are encouraged to walk or use public transport or park further away and walk. It also reduces pollution. This has happened on the roads near the two primary schools closest to me and is likely to happen on the road by a third primary. It has been a success.

Every single time you see it happen take a picture and send it to the school. If the headteacher doesn't deal with it, take it up with the governors. If it persists, get your local councillors involved. You don't have to put up with it.

Genius idea.

And using gaffer tape is the icing on the cake!

I don't get why more people won't park and walk. That's what we did because my mum hated parking, she always parked in a wide but quiet street maybe 3 minutes away. It's odd because it must be really stressful getting into parking wars for most people.

I hear you. Also live opposite a Primary School and yes I know I chose to buy a house here etc etc but every school year the parents and parking is getting worse and worse! The looks I get when trying to get into my own driveway would kill, and don’t get me started on those that arrive at 11 for a 2 o’clock collection and sit with the engine running! No I’m not joking, I only wish I was!