Have zero sympathy for parents for parents being fined for breaking parking rules outside schools

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https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/local-news/parents-slam-school-parking-madness-10674874?utm_source=mynewsassistant.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=embedded_search_item_desktop

Parents are moaning about CoL with fines parking on double yellow, zig zags etc.

One stupid quote from a parent
"I don’t understand why the fines are being handed out anyway. For those who park up more than 30 minutes at a time, fair enough they should be fined but for those who park for 10 minutes there needs to be more understanding."
"Times are hard as it is anyway and adding that extra expense of the ticket, on top of living costs rising is just unnecessary. Its putting more pressure on parents. The money I spent on that fine could be spent on putting a smile on my child’s face."

Well if you read the Highway Code, leave a few minutes earlier and get your DC to walk either from home or park down a side street (not on parking restricted lines/bays) about 5 min walk from the school, you won't risk getting a fine.

No sympathy from me.

I believe the removing the boundaries for parents to apply for their DC to attend schools outside catchment areas isn't doing this any favours. In the old days when I was at school, if you wanted your DC to attend a certain school, you moved home.

Also what are the chances are these parents are driving newish (less than 3 years old) cars that cost them £50k?

We need affordable buses, save masses of car journeys, 3 schools on 1 road is excessive.
schools normally are in residential areas, staggered times for the schools would ease this.
children should have access to local schools , we know that’s not possible for lots.

parking on zig zags and double yellows isn’t ‘a bit skewhiff’ though? It can lead to serious injury and death for a child, it’s not ok to break the law however stressed or pressurized you are.
Not to mention all the pollution at child level, I see so many people with engines running sitting outside school which is so stupid.

In my area we seem to have the double annoyance of your typical bad parking parents AND many of the parents who do walk, allow their children to entirely block the footpaths for anyone going the opposite direction! There is a pedestrian cut through/lane that is where the school gate is located, but this lane is also an access for shops, 2x nurseries and bus and rail hubs. But trying to walk down this lane in the opposite direction to the school footfall is a PITA tbh 🙄 I do get rather frustrated when parents don't tell their children to shuffle over if they're blocking the entire path. I don't expect kids to pay attention constantly but the parents should be....

I know those specific secondary schools well, school buses are put on for any kids too far away to walk, the walking routes are well lit and have pavements and there are bus stops right outside the school for public transport. There is no reason why the parents couldn’t park further away if they insist on picking up and dropping off rather than allowing their child to walk, ride their bike or catch a bus,

I live at the far end of a longish cul-de-sac fairly near a large school. Parents often park at the end nearest the school, but due to a new development going up nearby on the main road, I have heard that much of the street will be having double yellow lines painted.
If they start parking near my house and I get home from work at just after 3pm and can't park, I'll just leave my car blocking them into the cul-de-sac, go indoors and have a cup of tea. And wait. 😂

More like live anti tank missiles

The majority of people have no problem with people legally parking on their road for the school run. A few moan, but legal parking is not the problem.

Dangerous parking is.
Parking on zigzags literally outside the school gates so children can't cross safely.
Mounting the pavement to park, often narrowly missing children walking to school and obstructing the pavement for wheelchairs and pushchairs.
Parking on bends which obstruct vision.
And less dangerous, but still illegally, blocking residents driveways.

Parking legally and walking 30 seconds is not going to have any significant impact on the parent (or child).
Parking illegally or dangerously could have catastrophic results.

My son is a wheelchair user and some days I simply can't get him to school safely because someone has parked on the pavement. It is slightly better since I requested school send out a message.

So bloody selfish.

Why?

im in the UK & one of our primary schools was like that. We lived 14 miles away (private school) so walking wasn't an option.

drop off was totally fine. Selection of teachers/TA's taking each child from the car to inside the gate.

just a shame there was no practical option for pick up.

Would parents react differently when a child gets run over and killed due to selfish and illegal parking and driving?

I’m sure CO2 emissions have increased due to relaxing the policy. May have reduced past couple of years due to increased numbers of EVs. But majority of cars outside schools are SUVs and 4x4s. Very few cars are Fiestas and similar cars

I’ve been doing the school run for 27yrs due to large age gaps and i’ve never parked on a zigzag or yellow line near the school. Pure laziness and people clearly don’t care about kids safety.

Your point is ridiculous.

Just pure entitlement. And the generation before this were doing it too. I was a parent governor at not an affluent school and it was still a problem because parents feel entitled to get their child as close and as safely into school as possible and to hell with all others. There should be cameras issuing automatic fines rather than occasional visits from traffic wardens and it would stop the problem.

Our area has school streets. You cannot drive down for approx 1 hour around pickup and drop off. Stops the dodgy parking. Luckily it didn’t kick in quite as early as I stopped at breakfast club so was able to
park outside and leave car. Important when I need to drop at 7.30 and be on the 7.45 10 minutes walk away.

So they should leave earlier. Their level of income is completely irrelevant when it comes to how they should park to get their DC to school.

I used to cycle my DD to school and then cycle on to work. I see lots of parents in London with bucket bikes or similar doing that. When DC got older I used to accompany him on his bike, leave his bike at school and then head on in on mine.
Our old school had the kiss and drop system as it was on some residential streets and residents complained a lot about cars. The drop off system worked really well apparently

Wankers with 'Powered By Fairy Dust' stickers parking with engines running for twenty minutes on junctions need putting in stocks.

Exactly.

if your time is so precious you can’t park sensibly and legally you need to rethink your timings

Also what are the chances are these parents are driving newish (less than 3 years old) cars that cost them £50k?

I agree about the fines, more areas should do it but this last sentence was unnecessary.

No because the ones that park like it don’t care

I have noticed a trend in colleagues turning up late most days. What is the connection between them? Have primary school aged DC. Even leaving 5 mins earlier can get you there 7 mins earlier.

You find that weird? How many of us that commute at busy times notice leaving 5 mins later results the journey to be longer in time

So if their DC died? Would they act differently if they still need to take DC (if they have more one attending the same school) to the same school

That’s not what you asked in fairness. All schools up and down the country have the same problem with parents putting children at risk but those that do it justify it to themselves. If the police or parking wardens are there miraculously the problem disappears for that day only to reappear when there is no one in authority there. The police cannot staff every school every day. We should be able to rely on each other to park legally, considerately and not dangerously but that’s not the case. If a child died, give it until the end of term and then the parents will revert back to their usual behaviour. The parents causing the problem, their child won’t be the one killed it will be the child whose parents park a couple of streets away or walks to school.

A child was run over and seriously injured by a parent who insisted on driving on the pavement outside our sons old primary school. The child had to be carried to an ambulance as the parents refused to move their cars to let them through.