School – parents and their parking…

My parents stay across the road from Birkhill primary school,an afluent rural area in Angus. . People park in their drive and take their kids in to school. NB,this is not a shared drive…My Father,who was the local minister and is 76 asked the woman nicely not to do it again,he got a gobs worth of abuse.The next day hubby dropped the kids off (from my parent’s drive)then knocked on my Dad’s door and threatened him,telling him that he would be using the drive.My Dad put his car in his drive the next day,so the guy parked over the pavement and as far into the drive as he could,dropped his kids off and came to the door. My parents didn’t open the door,but confined their actions to recording him telling them he would burn their house down among other things. That was the least of his problems at that point as my brother and I were standing behind our Dad as the guy was kicking the front door. Unlike our parents who are lovely people, neither of us feel the need to turn the other cheek. 8)
Some people are just wired strangely IMO.

Ring the feds and ask them to send some traffic pcso’s down. They recently had a purge at our kids school and ticketed repeat offenders.

^ this. It’s a good example of the kind of thing PCSOs should be used for to help the community and save regular officers being used.

We did that. It lasted for the week that the officer turned up.

Then the usual suspects returned to park on double yellows, blocking the view of all the other children crossing the road into our school. And they too were rude to head teacher.

The mentality is interesting to say the least.

Ring the local neighbourhood policing team. They will send someone down.

after much much reminding…

In previous life I was chair of governors at a primary, and parental parking and car use was number one headache. Causes untold angst, parents rushing, fears for children, weather, it’s like a perfect parent nightmare for some folk.

No excuses, but one parent I remember had a kid someway on the autistic spectrum, who’d chant timings at the mother on the way to school: “It’s 7:55 we should be past the bakers by now” sort of thing, so it’s not always the parents; can you imagine what that would do to you..?

Glad I don’t have to deal with it anymore

The mentality is interesting to say the least.

indeed.

Get it at the school down the road.

Parents park on the zig zags that are there to protect their children from cars.

Parents park on the corner (double yellows) meaning it is very dangerous as the parked cars (teachers and kids) already reduces the road to a single car width so cars turning into the road need that area to get out of the way of cars coming down.

Parents speeding and/or on the phone going up and down the road, which has no pavement and is quite narrow and has kids walking 2, 3, 4 abreast to and from school. There is a road that leads out to the parallel main road right next to the school but that means they have 1 extra junction (which actually has better visibility) to negotiate so they drive up the narrow lane that the kids walk up.

Mind boggles.

Nope no problems at all. Why did you think they would be blokes by the way?

I suppose statistically I should have presumed 1.6 of them were men and 0.4 of them were women.

Oops 🙄

#everydayoddscalculation.

The solution seems obvious – simply construct the double yellows and zig-zags out of yellow-coloured spike strips. 😈

Regardless of gender, we’re talking about Police Officers acting in an official capacity. I don’t understand how that could cause problems. Worst case scenario might be that someone got the wrong impression, but they would then either call the Police, or confront the individual (who could then explain what they were doing and back it up with I.D.). How is that so terrible?

It’s not even an issue if they weren’t feds, but are there for a reason. No law against taking photos in a public place. Far too much paranoia.

My kids are grown now but for the 20 years we had kids in school this was a problem, it used to drive me mad how some parents cannot walk 50m or 100m to the school or ask their kids to do the same. I honestly believe the only way to address it is to persuade the police to come and give out tickets. In the US they are very aggressive about doing that and “no parking zones” around the schools. You can try a name and shame approach too, take photos of badly parked cars with the faces of their owners then put them on facebook or post them up at the school. Like the cycling vigilanties you can forward to the police too.

aracer: true, but the sort of people who are prepared to resort to threats and violence over parking are quite likely to be the same kind of people that burn down a paediatricians. 🙂

it rains and can be cold in the winter

Brilliant! Whatever did we do before cars? Wear a coat, maybe?

They can’t let their kids walk to school, because of all the cars and dangerous parking.

The exact and only reason I won’t let my youngest cycle to school on her own. She can cycle with me, or walk. Too many parents driving and parking like morons.

it rains and can be cold in the winter

They have the kids playing out during the day. Do these parents know this?!!! TBH though its NOT for the kids benefit is it.

Without sounding elitist as I am a chubber most of the parents in the badly parked cars don’t seem to be in prime condition either. So I don’t think its to protect the children from the weather but more the ‘stressed’ parent who has probably always had an element of anger/stress about them.

Interms of photographs- our kids school allows parents to take pics in events etc with only the proviso that you don’t publish the pics on FB/public media.

Ring the local neighbourhood policing team. They will send someone down.

ROFL 😀

Parents at my lads primary school park on the zig-zags, the double yellows, across driveways etc. I asked the head to put a note in the monthly school newsletter but she wouldn’t, asked the local traffic wardens to do something, they said it was a police issue. Asked the local policing team and they just replied to say that they’re too busy.

More than 1,000 children a month are being injured on local roads around British schools, but hey school-run-mums can’t walk…… 👿

More than 1,000 children a month are being injured on local roads around British schools, but hey school-run-mums can’t walk……

and Trafford Council have just withdrawn the Lollipop men/ladies from around the schools in our area due to funding shortfalls.

The same council that is going to lend a private company £4m to build a hotel on private land.

In our area- where there are speedbumps to calm traffic where you can witness cars kicking up and over them at speed.

How could I forget this little detail ^

The area I live is popular, there’s been a lot of development recently, new housing etc that in itself is no bad thing the house I live in was once new and me new to the area.

I do sometimes wonder how we managed to get so many blinkered inconsiderate people though, our road is a cul d sac with a footpath to the school so has now become a car park for manic parents who drive at speed as near as possible before dumping their cars.

There’s fantasitic(genuinely good) cycle paths with tributary paths feeding in for a mile or so all around the school yet still parents use cars and make it worse by parking on the pavements stopping people who would rather walk.

Last week I had to ask a BT workmen who parked his van completely across the pavemnt 10yds from the school gate to park on the road, it made no differnce to road traffic which would still be single file.
He did but only after huffing and puffing I mean how does someone like that’s brain work!

I just feel surrounded by **** and can’t wait for the kids to grow up we can move.

It’s not even an issue if they weren’t feds, but are there for a reason. No law against taking photos in a public place. Far too much paranoia.

That was kind of my point.

Paranoia causes problems when it fuelled by a perceived issue

Try standing outside a primary school where nobody knows you and take pictures for half an hour. It may be paranoia that causes the problems I suspect you may encounter. But that make the problem you could find yourself in any less real.

Parents punch headmasters for asking them to park responsibly.

How do you think they will react to a “dirty peado taking pictures of kids!!”

It’s appalling on the road of our school, police routinely patrol at school opening/ closing times and will take issue with drivers, driving or parking inconsiderately or flouting the law. There are a good few too. The area is now 20mph but makes no difference. And some parents don’t care either, blocking pavements, driveways etc. We’ve had near misses when cars have driven half on the pavements and if not for quick thinking parents children would have been injured or killed.

Parents punch headmasters for asking them to park responsibly.

How do you think they will react to a “dirty peado taking pictures of kids!!”

Quite happy for them to punch the plain clothed policeman, in my opinion. Then let the full force of the law descend upon them….

er, strawman? I doubt I’d have a problem standing outside the school my kids go to where the majority of people know me (and I’m an associate governor) – though fortunately whilst parking can be difficult (it has been more of an issue in the past) most people are fairly well behaved and we certainly don’t have the issues discussed here.

Parents punch headmasters for asking them to park responsibly.
How do you think they will react to a “dirty peado taking pictures of kids!!”

Ah, so we should stop doing any enforcement because some people are violent? I’m assuming that nobody knows the plain clothes officers who did actually do this and not really sure how that is any different from a civvy doing it. Maybe I’m a bit naive in thinking that if parents are going round punching other people then they should be up on assault charges.

My son walks to school and back on his own, rain or shine. 1.02km each way with 52m of ascent on his way home according to Strava… He’s nearly 7 now but started just after his 5th birthday. Residential roads with 30kph limit and no pavements.

(Well he sets off on his own but usually meets some of his friends on the way – all kids make their own way to school here in Switzerland) Life is good.

nealglover – Member

How do you think they will react to a “dirty peado taking pictures of kids!!”

With a prison sentence, from the sounds of it.

it rains and can be cold in the winter

They have the kids playing out during the day.

Now there is an assumption. I would say about 1/10 of ‘our’ schools at work (most Scottish schools) have a TOTAL aversion to break times in wet, snow or cold. I would say a further 4/10 a moderate aversion to rain and cold (and they still do not do snow), and a further 2/10 avoid snow, ice and rain where they can. That leaves 2 in 10 schools that actually boot the kids out, almost no matter what for a break. Secondaries are even worse IME.

I would also say that in 9 out of 10 schools there are a minority of parents who regularly (read: every week) object to their child being sent out in cold, wet or if they are a little tired.

I would also say that many parents do not equip their child for being outside at break – no waterproofs or hats, shoes that are pretty or cool rather than grippy and hardwearing. I would say nearly half ‘my’ schools this year (200+) see clothing as a fundamental barrier to getting outside at break or for learning.

And don’t even get me started on the parents that don’t do dirt or damp, that write letters to us about sand ‘invading’ (underlined three times in red) their new faux by four when they ‘have’ to collect ‘filthy’ children in it, as we installed a sandpit or similar.

And then we have the parents who withdraw their children from a school because there is a ‘muddy slope’ and ‘trees the paedo can hid in’ and ‘sticks that could poke my childs eye out’ in the hands of another child.

Mind you, if this did not happen, I would be out of a job… 😆

er, strawman?

Not even close.

My point was, sending an unknown person, not in an obvious official capacity, to take pictures outside a primary school is a bloody stupid thing to do, as it’s quite likely to cause issues.

Why send plain clothes officers to solve a Parking issue ??

What is the point.

Just send uniformed officers, or PCSO’s, or Traffic Wardens, or anybody else that is recognisable as working in an official capacity.

Far more sensible approach to solving the problem of Parking, and far less likely to create an entirely new and unrelated problem.

If you can’t see that, or pretend you cant, then you are clearly just looking for an argument.

Why send plain clothes officers to solve a Parking issue ??

What is the point.

Just send uniformed officers, or PCSO’s, or Traffic Wardens,

Because, as detailed several times here, everyone behaves when there’s a visible presence and goes back to doing what they like as soon as there isn’t.

That must be why Traffic Wardens never get the chance to write any tickets out then.

They probably wouldn’t write many tickets if the people being ticketed were sat in their car waiting for Tarquin and Hermione at the time.

Ok. Must be just me that thinks strangers hanging around outside schools taking pictures for no apparent reason is a bad idea then.

Fair enough.

Ok. Must be just me that thinks strangers hanging around outside schools taking pictures for no apparent reason is a bad idea then.

Fair enough.

Thing is, surely a power-peado could source a PSCO uniform? How do you know that that traffic officer, or indeed TEAM of traffic officers isn’t a highly organised ‘nonce-offensive’ orchestrated over radio from the peado hive?

Until we ban radio and cameras the little ones will never be safe!

Can we also say the parents may be waiting for Jaydon and Stacee (sic) just for balance?

Until we ban radio and cameras the little ones will never be safe!

I think you may have missed my point slightly.

I’m not saying that people are correct in their assumptions.

I’m just saying that rightly or wrongly, some people won’t like strangers taking pictures for no apparent reason, around schools/children, and may react badly if they see it as a potential threat to those children.

And it seems (to me at least) unwise to create that situation, to solve a parking problem.

I dread riding past one local school it’s on a tight blind narrow corner and the cars parked for the school force the on coming traffic into your lane with no where to go as on your side is a 8ft stone wall right upto the road. And they come flying round the bend and try an force their way through, stress levels always rise when you approach.

I live by a bus stop, the only bus that uses it goes to the school about a mile up the road. Some parents park/abandon their cars in the road by the bus stop, wait for the bus with their precious little ones then drive off. What the hecky decky is that about? If their precious legs can’t get them to the bus stop then why not go all the way to school with them? They’re usually stopped for longer than it would take to get there and back.

What the hecky decky is that about?

Being generous, perhaps the parents are easing their precious angels into the idea of getting to school independently?

Start off by taking them to the bus stop and waiting with them.
Once they are comfortable then start dropping them at the bus stop and leaving.
And once they can handle that trauma then start suggesting they make their own way to the bus stop since it’s a nice day…

A BMW X3 pulled up 5yds from the school gate, parked on top of the no parking sign on the tarmac.

create a facebook page for the school and then post video’s of the offenders 😀

I live almost right next door to a private school. It seems that the parents feel that delivering their off spring right to the door of the school on time no matter what the risk to other road users is the only thing that matters. The driving and parking is appalling; its as if driving within a hundred metres of a school causes them to loose all common sense and courtesy.

I’ve found that since swapping from a car to a battered old white van for work the Audi and Mercedes driving elite of North Devon move out of my way far more readily.

GrahamS that was my theory too, but 3 years later and it’s still going on. That’s one insecure kid…

Worked in a cul de sac in chester a few years ago, school at top of road, no other vehicles parked on road when i arrived, so parked on road, neighbour shouted best to park on pavement, that afternoon it was like car wars, fat unhealthy people parking everywhere to pick up their brats, got screamed at by a few mothers for blocking the road and having a van, never understood that, a few months later saw a pcso, told him about problems in that area, a year later school closed down and was demolished then the council workmen came and painted school signs and zig zags outside the derelict site.

http://www.chesterfirst.co.uk/news/122405/road-signs-in-newton-for-the-school-that-isn-t-there.aspx

Yep – you’ve got caught up by the paranoia even if it’s not your paranoia, which was kind of my point when I first used that word. Why does it matter if some stupid people don’t like somebody taking photos there? If they react badly, then that is an issue with their behaviour not the person quite legitimately enforcing parking issues.

Or should we not enforce anything to do with motoring because people tend to react badly when they get behind the wheel?

Or should we not enforce anything to do with motoring because people tend to react badly when they get behind the wheel?

No. I believe that might be classed as “Reducto Absurdum” ?

But finding a way to enforce any rule, that’s effective, and unlikely to cause additional, and unrelated problems seems like a logical way to go about things.