I am shocked at what I have just realised - parking on zig zag lines outside school

[fryalot]

This has been my bugbear all term. There are three or four mums who assume that the law about not parking on the zigzags outside school doesn't apply to them and I dp (vice chair of governors) is going to raise it at the next meeting.

Today, I realised that the woman who does this EVERY DAY is the Governor in charge of Health and Safety!!!!

Sorry, just had to get that out of my system - I'll go and make a cup of tea now

Our head sent a letter out to parents reminding them of the rules about not parking on the zig zags and asks if repeat offenders should be named and shamed. How about dp suggesting you a similar thing and asking the Health & Safety Governor, to put her name to it!

well, she is health and safety governor tis a fab idea.

Have decided that I will tell him what she does. He won't be too scared to say anything in front of her, there is just a slight possibility that he may look straight at her and tell her that he knows that she is the worst one for this because I told him so (which may make things a tad awkward when dropping dd2 off)

We aren't right outside the main gates of the school, but we - and about 4 other cul-de-sacs- are close to teh toehr entrance to teh school. Several times I ahve irate women knocking on my door saying "The asda delivery lorry is blocking me in". So? You shouldn't park on the pavement blocking my drive should you?
Several times Dh has arrived home on a Friday early and been unable to park at all, becasue people park across our drives,a dn the drives on the other side,in fact the whole pavement is one long line of cars. SO he parks alongside one of them.
Then they can't move

Exactly! He need say nothing to her and maybe she might get the message that she is being watched! Would she have the balls to sign it with a clear concience?, I think not! I'd love to be a fly on the wall!

that annoys me no end, as does driving to school. FFS walk!

Oh I know sqounk, one of our parent governors regularly arrives at 9.10am and screeches to a halt right outside the head's office, unloads kids and takes them in. We have a sort of turning circle outside our school, and it seems that to park there one must be "special", or just assume themselves to be so! It's our PTA tomorrow- wonder if this issue will come up?!

I live opposite a school too and the parking on the zig-zags and across the drives is awful. It's like their need not to be late (set off earlier) is greater than my (or my neighbours, as I'm going to the school anyway) need to be where they want to go on time.

The general impression you get is that it's lots of parents, but actually, as in your case, its's the same few everyday. My neighbour is what you might call a gentle giant, but the driver who blocked him in the other day didn't know that and I have noticed that his drive has been clear ever since!

to be fair, most of the parents can't walk their kids to school. If the school only took kids within walking distance, then it would have a grand total of 7 kids. So the other forty odd have to either drive or get the school bus. It's not them driving to school that I have an issue with.

And because my new year resolution was not to be irritated with things I can't change, it's not even them parking over my drive that bothers me (I just block them in for twenty minutes or so)

It's just the sheer arrogance of them thinking that the law doesn't apply to them. I wonder why they think the law doesn't apply...

This is something that really bugs me too. They go on about safe routes to school etc etc, then when you get to school your child could be run over cos someone is parked illegally!

They have to park on zigzags squonk. Otherwise they might have to walk 5 yards with their precious angels. Dontcha know the roads are dangerous!
I sometimes think cars make people selfish and give no thought to others safety. A sort of 'I'm all right Jack'
But then I think some poeple think double yellows and zigzags are there to reserve parking spaces just for them

I arranged to meet someone at the local primary school to pick up an eBay purchase: she was picking up her son. "Where shall I meet?" I asked. "Oh, that's easy." she said "Just outside the school at the disabled parking spot - my lad's in a wheelchair."

But I didn't meet her there, because she couldn't park there, because some dozy, selfish sod had plonked a BMW half across the zig zags and half across the disabled spot.

Waiting to pick up a teacher.

Just thought I'd share.

Some parents are lazy swines. I have a disabled badge but I do not park on the zig zags; EVER. There is no excuse. I have actually walked for quite a distance, not easy after recovering from chemo, and walked past these lazy sods. Sometimes, I will ask them why they are parking on the lines and you get the same old story; "There is nowhere else to park", " I have a bad leg etc". NO EXCUSES. Its just lazyitis. Same with people parking in disabled bays. Nowadays I carry an A4 pad and a marker pen and write large notes under the wipers stating "NOT DISABLED; JUST BONE IDLE. GENUINE DISABLED PERSON UNABLE TO PARK BECAUSE OF MY SELFISH ATTITUDE" Works a treat. You never see them again in that space. Perhaps we could draw up such notices for the School parkers saying "I PREFER KIDS TO GET KNOCKED OVER RATHER THAN GETTING OFF MY LAZY ARSE TO WALK A SMALL DISTANCE" It could just catch on. Unfortunately, it makes you a social embarrassment to your 12 year old!

Parking by schools is my own private bug bear too. We live in a cul-de-sac next to a school and have had terrible trouble with people blocking the road with their cars. However, after months of petitioning we now have double yellow lines. For the most part that means that people park sensibly but there are still those who think they will only be 10 minutes so it doesn't matter. They are wrong. I yearn for the day a delivery truck has to get through the pinchpoint and takes out the wing of one of their cars.

I can't let DS1 (7.5) walk to school even though it is only a few meters away because people treat our cul-de-sac as somewhere to turn or because people come round the corner, late and desperate to park and way too fast.

Our head is very supportive of those suffering from the parking problems. They have now implemented a school bus scheme that picks up children from around the catchment and a little beyond it and it has cut the number of cars significantly.

However, they have still had to spend good money putting up barriers at the schools main gate just because people refused to listen to requests not to drive onto the school site at the beginning and end of the day and were consequently risking the safety of the children. Everybody always assumes that the rules don't refer to them.

I think your H & S lady needs somebody to have a word. We do occasionally get a traffic warden patrolling the area and I would have thought if you phoned them they might well pay you a visit at the correct time. It helps if people think there is a possibility of getting caught, even if they don't come very often.

Definitely get DH to raise it at the next meeting and shame the woman as well. She really should know better.

When i was living in London, there was the same terrible problem at the local school at the end of the road. Until the day there was a small fire in one of the classrooms (a chemistry experiment got a touch out of control) and the obligatory 4 fire trucks came zooming round. They just TRASHED the cars blocking their way in. My knicker elastic still pings at the memory of watching six amazingly hunky firemen lifting a snazzy little BMW and dumping it over on its side then giving it a bash with the truck on the way past for good measure. The parking improved considerably after that!!!

Oh that's brilliant hotchoc. I'm just wondering how I can engineer an emergencey call without doing something illegal

good notes Partsky. Need some for arseholes who park on pavements so I can't get dd past in her wheelchair (apperently if we squeeze past and scratch their cars we could be liable for damage!)
Walking down the high Street today and actually saw traffic wardens giving a penalty to some tit parked in a disabled bay
When my kids were at school the school actually built a carpark in the playing field to deal with dangerous parkers (despite this being a school only local kids within 1 mile went too, people still drove ffs!) but you know what, they still couldn't walk 25 yards and still parked on the zigzags at the school gae. The carpark was usually empty.

i shouted at some fool who parked on the zig zags outside our school the other day. it felt marvellous . and then i rang up school & shopped her when i got home. the worst offender is the ice cream van during the summer though . sent the traffic warden after him...

The most dangerous part of our whole journey to school is crossing the road outside school. It makes me

drove past our next nearest school today - they were parked on the zigzag lines there too.

And in the bus stop

And of course today it was raining . . . . .

I asked a mother at our school today not to park where she has been parking at lunchtimes for weeks now - on the zig zags (granted they are very faint), but it is right outside the school gates, on the pavement, and right at the crossing point, so we had to walk around her people carrier so we could get back up on the pavement!

She took it very well.

well done flier

dp says he will definitely mention it at the meeting (tomorrow I think) he likes the idea of asking the H & S governor to back him on it, and he also likes the idea of suggesting that repeat offenders have their cars photographed and slapped on the noticeboard.

Will let you all know what happens