Pathetic response from council parking enforcement team

[unbelievablybelievable]

I reported dangerous parking outside my child's school earlier today. Parking on the zigzags, parking on the pavement, mounting the pavement while children are walking/cycling, blocking the pavement for push chairs and wheelchairs etc. but particularly dangerous with the parking on zigzags and mounting the pavement.

AIBU to think this is a pathetic response from the council?

*"Thank you for contacting us regarding inconsiderate parking at xxxxxx Primary Academy school. We completed a review of the parking at every school in the county and xxxxxx Primary
Academy school was identified in having lower levels of issues comparted to many other schools in the county. We identified 70 schools with major issues (high priority) and a further 72 that had
significant parking problems (priority). A further 27 schools had issues that were borderline significant(rotational).
With the resources available we do not have capacity to visit xxxxxx Primary Academy school during the school run. We are attending the high priority schools once a week, priority once every 3
weeks and rotational every half term. If there are changes to the parking restrictions, or the school increases in size we will revisit and reassess the location. If there are no changes then we are
not going to review any school during this school year.

Kind Regards
xxxxxx Parking Enforcement Team"*

Sounds like they've done an excellent job of assessing how to prioritise their staff and have told you they can't manage it all.

Complain about the lack of resources to the department manager.

Write back and volunteer some funding ?

Sounds fair enough tbh. What did you expect them to do, abandon all their efforts on the really bad schools and come straight to yours because you should be their priority? If there are over 170 schools where parking is significantly worse than yours, they'd have to have a huge influx of resources to attend every school - would you be willing to pay that much more council tax?

I suppose the only thing you could query is when this 'review' was done, and if a while ago/anything has changed ask them to review it. But other than that sounds like you'd be better off discussing with the head teacher or other parents and seeing if there's anything you can do yourself.

Take photos. Complain to your local councillor. Get your school on the priority list.

Have the school not reported it?

Id expect if 170 schools have more illegal parking than parking on zigzags and mounting the pavement, that police would be involved, fines issued, cctv in use, and the roads closed over school times like the next council over do.

Not just a measly sending 1 guy over to schools on rotation to hopefully catch the odd idiot (which is what it sounds like).

I get prioritizing, but if manpower is low, then they need to look at other options. Not just shrug their shoulders and say, "ah well, if a kid gets run over at xxxx school it's all ok because other schools might have more kids run over."

School regularly "reminds" parents about parking but also has to regularly remind parents to call the police if another parent gets aggressive outside the school gates, and advises parents not to get involved. I don't know the history, but presumably there is history.

so you want hundreds of roads to be closed over peak commuting time? I'm sure that wouldn't be disruptive at all.
the council can't make the police get involved.
fines, cctv etc all cost a lot of money...the only way to do any of that would be to get significantly more staff. So, again, would you be willing to pay for that?

Even if they did have a more intense/punitory system (and you don't know they don't, they haven't told you what their 'visits' consist of), the other schools with worse parking would still be their priority for enforcement, so it wouldn't make any difference to your school either way.

I can understand your frustration OP. I like right next to DSs school and have had cars mount the kerb as were walking and I've had to pull DS out the way. My neighbour even had her car hit by a parent during drop off, taking off the wing mirror and scratching the paint.

Unfortunately man power only goes so far. Our PTA volunteer to patrol the streets at drop off now sporadically. Can't enforce anything but they take plenty of photos which are sent on to the council (or occasionally posted on the local FB group) and people did take notice

Why should we put up with sub-standard services though? Would you be happy if police refused to investigate armed robberies just because there was a murder elsewhere? Or Drs refused to give you an appointment for a chest infection just because some people get lung cancer?

I can't say which parking restrictions/enforcements would be best for which school - that's not my area of expertise. But I can say that if primary children are risking being run over 2x daily isn't a priority - that's a pretty shitty world we live in.

Our council has an online form where you can upload a photo of illegal parking - perhaps you could suggest this to your council?

That's how I did it.

Councils are desperately underfunded to the tune of £20 million a year. Redundancies are being made. Priority is social care. Not leaving people sat in urine and faeces. Not bins. Not parents unable to park down the road. Not dog poo.

If you don’t know this why not read up? Your council will have articles and surveys asking what you would prioritise. If that’s pot holes and hedges over elderly care, cast your vote.

And that's acceptable???

Well that’s the legacy from the last government and the policies of the current one. Do you want to pay more? The ends don’t meet. What would you cut?

Councils have been asking for the past five or so years what you want them to prioritise. Do you read the articles or engage with the surveys? Or just moan. This is something the rest of the community shouldn’t have to pay for.

I always do the surveys. My main priority has always been SEN funding. Followed closely by social care. I don't mind paying more, but I have been involved in petitions to investigate the salaries of the childrens services leaders considering the massive failings within children's social services and SENd in our county. We have a group set up with our local counselors and parents of children with SEN that got the ball rolling on that.

In all honesty, I have never put parking as a priority because I thought of parking enforcement as ticketing cars who have overstayed by 10mins in the council car park or parking without a permit on a residential road. I never for a second dreamed that tiny children (nursery starts at 2 at this school) at risk of being run over even when walking sensibly on the pavement with their parent wouldn't be a priority.

It is a priority though, that is literally what they are saying. But the risk is higher elsewhere so that is where they have to focus their efforts. If by their evidence there is a risk of 10 children being run over at another school, or 1 child at your school, they focus on the 10. Which is what they are doing. Of course in an ideal world they would have the manpower to ensure that the risk everywhere hits 0 but that is not the reality so they have to focus on the biggest risk areas.

And that's exactly why I think it's pathetic. It's children's lives. Anything above 0 is unacceptable.

Again, that’s a lovely idea. But what is your actual suggestion for making that a reality? You expect people at the council to work for free to man this? Are you going to quit your full time job and work full time for free to do it?

It is parents parking on the zigzags though. Nobody else is doing it at 2pm.

You're right to be angry and frustrated. Prioritisation of one school over another because it is higher or lower "risk" is going to mean fuck all when a child is killed at a "lower risk" school. But at the same time, council resources are hideously limited, what can they do? I think your anger is misdirected, it's the attitude of drivers who just will not change what they do. It's all a reflection on UK in modern times I fear.

This is it. And it is the drivers fault, absolutely. But I've been on enough MN threads to know the usual selfish excuses of dangerous driving/parking on the school run.

When my eldest was young (different area) I challenged a parent parking on zigzags. The heads secretary happened to be leaving the school a minute or two later and backed me up saying the head would be calling the police if he didn't move. I'd do that again in that area but with this school putting out reminders about parent conflicts and getting police involved, I'm not prepared to confront them here. So stuck relying on reporting. Which has proved futile.

I agree.

Maybe you could organise the school run mums to stand in a circle round the offending car and point and chant “Shame! shame! Shame!” like they do in The Handmaid’s Tale.

Bonus points if you all wear a weird headscarf while you do it.

You could probably get it to go viral online and that might stop the parking criminals.