Parking fine at school run

[js1000]

I am really upset, as I got parking tkt whn i went inside the school to pickup kids. My car was on double yellow,there are no single lines on that street. I was only away for 6 min. ( on ticket time is 3.35pm -3.41pm.
I think its v unfair because they purposely come at 3.30 when they know parents are going to be inside the school.
Is it worth appealing against it?

If you did it every day you wouldn't be so knackered because you would be fitter.

You will notice that I said we are lazy. I fully include myself in my condemnation.

sausage - you seem to have a problem with my posting style. Do you not like ? I use him quite a lot.

The bottom line is the OP was breaking the law, so should put up and shut up. Or shall we condone other forms of law breaking just because it suits?

Sausage dont want to join in the general knocking but on the days when I dont walk to school then I take ds by bus - me and dd in her buggy and it costs me 1.20 each way.

Fair enough - am paying not to walk - surely your £2 parking is the same - its the cost for you not walking because as you say sometimes you cant face it...

Wot soupy said.

I too am amazed by how many people here seem to think they have no alternative to driving.

Why not drive to somewhere nearby (like, a mile away) and park there? Is there really no non-restricted parking a mile from the school? where are you all

A friend of mine drives a fair distance to school (for a number of reasons I won't bore you with here). That wouldn't be (isn't) my choice, but on purpose she parks a mile away and she and DC walk. Benefits - a bit of exercise for all (and yes SP, if you did walk every day you would be amazed at the difference in yr fitness) and she is not causing an obstruction of any kind near school.

I cannot believe the hideous traffic we have every afternoon at 3.30pm around our school. And as for people who don't stop at the zebra...well don't get me started

Js100, they come at 3.30 to stop silly people parking on double lines

I'm glad OP got a ticket.

SausagePastie - really don't see what your parking issues have to do with this thread to be honest. They are totally different situations. World of difference between parking on double yellow lines and in a resident's bay. Personally I'd not do either though maybe if at that time of day the residents were all at work and loads of empty spaces and it not causing a problem maybe I would. But I would never, ever park on a double yellow line even if I was only going to be a few minutes because of the safety aspect.

I have no sympathy whatsoever for the OP. Not sure circumstances matter. I have been called to the school when DS1 was ill and STILL parked legally, which meant a further walk for him, bless.

And it makes me seethe when parents park their stupidly large tractor type cars (which they clearly have no talent for driving) right on junctions so that people have difficulty turning into or out of roads. Unbelieveably selfish. Park properly further away where your stupid tractor isn't causing a problem. Oh sorry, yes, because you have a BIG EXPENSIVE CAR, you're king of the road, ain't ya? Selfish cows.

But I can't stand the general car-bashing. I HAVE to drive DS1 to school in the car because DS2's nursery is miles away and if we walked to school and back to the house to pick up the car, DS2 would be VERY late for nursery. At pickup-time, I drive straight from work to the school - again, I haven't got any spare time to drive home first, drop the car off and then walk to school to pick DS1 up.

There is such a thing as necessary and sensible use of cars, you know.

Oh and don't get me started on double parking. People seem to think they have a right to do it outside DS2's nursery because they've got a supposedly good reason like a sleeping sibling in the car, or because, well, they're "only going to be 5 or 6 mins".

It doesn't seem to cross their selfish stupid minds that they might be blocking someone in who's ALSO dropping off and needs to rush off to a doctor's appointment or something (as frequently happens to me). Or that they are causing a HUGE nuisance if a lorry wants to get past and can't and so traffic builds up behind it for yards right back into the main road and blocking up traffic lights.

The OP would probably do all that, of course. It all comes down to how "me, me, me" our society has become.

Yep, that's exactly it, Riven, this "sense of entitlement" people seem to feel. Everything revolves around them of course. Makes you wonder what they're like in other areas of their life, doesn't it?

Riven I understand you work very very hard and your situation is not easy compared to mine, but I tend to think that makes you extremely hardworking rather than me lazy.

I could walk it every day, of course I could, but ds2 doesn't stay in his buggy - he won't, and we have the usual 2yo stuff about it and he runs off and all that - sometimes I literally can't cope with it and it makes the situation dangerous. Also if I do use the car I have access to (it isn't mine) I tend to have more energy, and TIME, to do everything else, including probably some stuff that isn't strictly necessary like looking after the pets and decorating and some minor building work, to try and make the place nicer for the kids.

I see the car as a bonus...I have often suggested the person whose it is, has it all the time at their house and I walk, but they want me to have it here so I can do more stuff and be more active, rather than spending half the day walking everywhere.

I appreciate it very much.
Please don't lecture me about traffic - I grew up in a militantly anti car family, we cycled everywhere, I did the 6 miles school journey every day by bike and got utterly sick of being cut up by cars and buses...yes I was fitter then. But I don't have the time now, not if I want to do other stuff as well.

So adding it all up, time, cost of parking, laziness and sheer exhaustion...I'm glad I have the car, and as long as ds is still small I will continue to use the residents' spaces, and campaign for the council to let us pay legitimately to do so.

I would add that the car is only a 2 and a half year old fixture.

Before that, I walked everywhere too, with ds1 - we only began using it when he went to school and ds2 was a small baby. I have done the whole 24 tins of cat food in the shopping basket, heavy 3yo thing...not that it compares to a 6yo, obviously. But don't think I'm some kind of antithesis to your lifestyle, I'd be upset if you thought that.

The comment about everyone elses cars was facile but I was being straight with you - if there was less traffic, our walk to school would not pose a safety issue, and we might well do it every day. It's hypothetical I know, which makes me very sad - I tend to think smaller communities and localised food and so on would make life far better, and scrapping cars completely - lovely idea. But I'm not in control of that.

Hope it serves you well if you manage to get one.
Nope - no streets with spaces, let alone free ones - it's mad, tiny city, no parking anywhere. If there was a street not too far away of course I'd use it - so would everyone else! There's just nothing, only pay and display car parks that don't give change and minimum charge is something silly.

The OP is either
a) incredibly stupid and not only parks endangering the lives of children or
b) is having a large slice of troll pie for tea.

a) incredibly stupid and not only parks endangering the lives of children and considers appealing against a justified fine(if you were in my city you can expect to be towed)

don't you just love it when you question someone's intelligence and make a complete mess up of your own post!!

Sorry about Friday Riven, I had no internet and so no fb, mn or itouch fish....

I love it when an unhelpful person is made to be helpful...

Riven and Soupdragon - I am not lazy at all and would park somewhere else if this school was not in Central London where any other parking would be about 20 miles away. And before you say I should use public transport I choose not to because I have four children and a car for my family is not a luxury but a necessity. I chose to educate my children in central london because that is where I work. There is no parking for miles and you could spend the better part of an hour looking for free parking bays to pay so what would you do - have your children late to school every day looking for a parking bay or park on a single yellow line for five minutes and drive off.

I reckon that Westminster Borough see my logic which is why I have appealed successfuly on all ocassions. They have agreed that because I am always merely doing a drop off each morning that they will cancel my tickets. In addition we hardly see traffic wardens (apart from new ones) patrolling round the school gates during the school run. So please dont put everyone under the same umbrella of laziness. After dropping my four kids off I also go to work educating the teenagers of England so I cannot afford to be late for work either. I assume that all other parents only park on yellow lines because there is no other choice. Local authorities need to recognise that parking is hard to come by and most parents use their cars because they have to.

If I didnt work my kids would go to a local school and we would work - so my choice is to work and drive my kids to school. Thank you

Phew - thats it