school parking

[green thing]

My child was almost run over outside school
on the pavement.
By a vehicle reversing on to the pavement to park. The driver could not see
My child due to the height of the vehicle rear window.
It was my fault according to the driver because I was not holding his hand (8 years old)

The cars park just next to the restriction blocking the access on and off the pavements at junctions
Most cars park half on the pavement causing an obstruction to pedestrians
I've had to walk into the road to get past sometimes.

The council are refusing to extend the zz lines and will not put
Yellow lines around the junctions.
The local police don't have the resources to enforce restrictions everyday
And when they do patrol no parking problems.
I can't believe the lack of consideration for others childrens safety by some of the
Parents

[Linzy]

I have major issues concerning parents, children and parking. Where i work the council allowed one of the units on our industrial estate to be let to a children play centre. Almost everyone objected due to the fact the majority of the other units are owned by haulage companies. But sure enough there is now a childs play centre. You can no longer exit the industrial estate via one of the two exit/entry points as the parents of the cildren that use this centre park not just on both sides of the road, but apparently if you cant be bothered to walk an extra 20mtrs you can park, lock your car and entre the centre all from smack bang in the middle of the road. WTF. My main issue is the fact that the majority of the people that come out of that place have children under 10 and they dont hold there hands they just let them run/walk ahead. No offence but in my experiance of young children they get excited and have no common sense.

Unfortantly in my view i would say that unless you are holding a young childs hand so that you are next to the child and are visable then, you are responsible for making sure that chid is in no danger from road users. Haven driven my car and almost hit a child who just came wandering into the road outside the play centre i can only blame the person who is responsible for that child and should be making sure they dont do silly things like walk infront of moving vehicle and into roads.

Sorry not very comforting to your post but our industrial estate currently have a very heated hate campaign out against the drips that seemly cant even keep a child from running of from the exit of a building and the 10mtr walk to a car

[Bigmallly]

Write to your local paper GT & send a copy to the council or let the coucil know of your intentions.. Maybe get a petition going......Roads are for cars, pavements are for pedestrians end of..........

[chris]

It's illegal to park on the pavement IIRC? I'd have gone ballistic, we live opposite a school and the amount of idiots that park dangerously (despite signs warning of the dangers of parking there- as in "PARKING HERE COULD KILL YOUR CHILD"), drive fast, or don't look when turning the corner. It's a good job I don't take my daughter to school very often as I'd probably end up in trouble

[alldigging]

This was the problem when my son was at primary school. I got the paper to do a story. It's the same, if not worse these days.

Bear in mind it is other parents doing it. That's the really frustratingly annoying thing.

I asked at school if they could include some sort of reward scheme for those kids who walk to school and they basically said no as it would discriminate against those who were driven to school.

I know the local school is very oversubscribed and part of the reason people drive is that they have moved away and want to still come to this school.
I think the governors need to take a stand and make people go to their nearest school to their home - this is probably got to be done at government level, or maybe the council could enforce it more.

They let people with siblings in priority over nearest kids, so once you have got one kid in you can send the rest even if you live 3 miles away.

There should be no reason for a child not to walk to primary school. With a parent and as they get older on their own.

Apparently our council has a camera car they take and ticket people for parking badly but it can't be there everyday.

You need perhaps to approach the board of governors and discuss this with them.

It is scary seeing cars come close to knocking kids down.

If you can get a group of walking parents together and do a protest and get the paper along - maybe a stand on the edge of pavement to prevent cars driving on?
(Or given the level of moronicness of some drivers, a massive row of cones or tall items...?)

I would get in touch with councillors too to see what they can do.

[Nicos]

The headmaster/parents/governors needs to appeal to the drivers.

Perhaps some of the parents concerned could write down license numbers of the offending cars each day for a few weeks.
A typed note with the results of offending drivers either sent to each child's family or pinned to the gate might make people think twice?? ( or something like that?)

Maybe with a warning that the police will receive a copy of the list- and maybe pictures of cars parked illegally half on road/pavement if this continues to cause a problem.
We had a very similar problem at our children's junior/infant school many years ago.
The entrance was at the head of a small cul-de-sac and only enough parking on one side of the road for about 8 cars.
You can imagine the double parking involved in all the other roads nearby.
...and then peeps wonder why kids don't walk to school on their own any more. Viscous circle!

I used to feel sorry for the residents trapped in or out of their driveways twice a day due to thoughtless double parking.

[redser]

We had a similar problem. The school was great and took it upon themselves to do something about it. Fliers were constantly sent home in kids' bags reminding parents where not to park and how dangerous certain practises were. Some teachers volunteered 15 - 20 minutes each morning to stand in trouble spots with big smiles and high-vis jackets, blocking parents from parking where they shouldn't. So shame and brazeness worked. There's such a aura of shame about it now that the odd parent who does pull up in the wrong place gets a hell of a lot of stares and comments. And they deserve it, selfish &*^%^*&

[Feral007]

Linzy I can see that in your situation putting a childcare centre in that area was just ridiculous. It should not have happened.

However I've been driven mad by the way parents drive around schools. I think that if you are walking with your child in a pedestrian zone then you should not have to hold their hand simply to allow you to pull them out from under someone's car if they are parking on the pedestrian zone. When my boys were in primary school in the Sydney I'd driven to the school but parked in the next block. Walked with them and their little sister to the school and delivered them into the playground. Little sister and I walked back to the car. As we crossed the road at the side of the school, we were on a marked pedestrian crossing, one that had a concrete section in the middle of the road, on both sides. To make people stop and take notice, with a sign on both sides. Someone drove up in a 4x4, saw us crossing, drove onto the other side of the road (and concrete section) and drove across the ped crossing. Yes, I had hold of my daughters hand. But if I hadn't? Should we have been safe to walk across that crossing? Yes, legally they were in the wrong for xing while we were on it at all. Legally they were wrong for driving on the wrong side of the road.
And yes, they had two children in the school uniform in the back.

[Hazel at the Hill]

I wrote this last night, but the vine ground to a halt for some reason and wouldn't post. I did copy it, and although most of my points have been covered, there are a couple of other things which might be useful so here it is:


That's terrible!

Well there will be lots of parents who have first hand experience of how to deal with this one, but to get the ball rolling, I'd suggest:

Firstly - take lots and lots of photos showing the extent of the parking problem.

Arrange a meeting with the head teacher and ask what they suggest - I'd say a letter to all parents to start with reminding them of the importance of safety. Maybe there is a parking area nearby (local church maybe) where it can be agreed that parents park and a 'walking bus' takes the kids to the school gates.

Follow the meeting up with a letter setting out the problem and any solutions agreed on and copy it to the head of governers, the local councillor, the local paper, the local education authority and the local police. Also, Highways dept if you think that the area should be put on the list for traffic calming/zig zags/double yellows.

In fact, invite the local paper to do a piece on the problem. Is there something in the Ofstead inspections which relates to safety of the school environment? Anything which might affect the ofstead rating is likely to give the head the jitters.

Suggest that the school does a road safety awareness project - I would think that this would fit into a lesson plan somewhere along the way.

Organise a 'blitz' morning in conjuction with the people above - and ask the local police for a PCSO officer to attend (or traffic warden!) - and have as many staff/governors/responsible parents out in hi vis jackets (and clipboards) who will talk to every selfish parker.

Oh - and I'd put a bunch of flowers up on the lamppost where your child was nearly hit - nothing like the appearance of a 'shrine' to make people think!

Although Linzy has a really good points too - it's all about everyone being good neighbours - drivers (whoever they are) shouldn't endanger children's lives, but parents don't have any more priority in the neighbourhood than any other.

[alldigging]

Oh - and I'd put a bunch of flowers up on the lamppost where your child was nearly hit - nothing like the appearance of a 'shrine' to make people think! [/I]
.

Now I like that.

[VirginVegGrower]

It's illegal to park on the pavement IIRC? I'd have gone ballistic, we live opposite a school and the amount of idiots that park dangerously (despite signs warning of the dangers of parking there- as in "PARKING HERE COULD KILL YOUR CHILD"), drive fast, or don't look when turning the corner. It's a good job I don't take my daughter to school very often as I'd probably end up in trouble

You say that but once when walking with a colleague of mine, we passed a POLICE CAR parked half on a pavement and half on double yellow lines!
My colleague was an older gentleman and worked for R-R. The car in question got a tap on the window from said colleague. I stood and watched an entertaining debate between young female officer and my friend. He took out his mobile phone to call the police and reported the patrol car. She drove off.
Just shows why the police can't enforce such behaviour though, doesn't it?
I'm afraid I would be keeping a hand on my child's. I'm not condoning what they are doing and the school should be doing the reporting, but it's like driving or walking with a dog - their safety means your reading ahead.

[Two_Sheds]

My child was almost run over outside school on the pavement....It was my fault according to the driver

"I'm sure you're right Madam. Now let me just take your details and I'll be contacting my solicitor to ask their opinion, before I make a claim against your insurance ...

The local police don't have the resources to enforce restrictions

They have time to pop out and place No Parking cones if you're moving house though, and they'd be on you like a ton of bricks if you "accidentally" scratched those illegally parked cars with, say, the buggy handlebars

Makes my blood boil, it does. People ignore rules because nobody will confront them. They don't give a damn about you or your children, they really don't.


Direct action is what you need, name & shame on you tube

[salome2001]

get back to the council and ask them to get that camera car out again, and ask the school to mention it againin the school newsletter that the car is out there. Anyone offending then deserves what they get.

Pet hate of mine too, in addition to drivers using the road outside the school as a speedway when the 20 mile an hour zone lights are flashing

[Potstubsdustbins]

You may not like the Sun newspaper but it can be useful.

Take some piccies, write to the headmaster/mistress, the police and crime comissioner, the chief constable and your MP enclosing copies of said picces. And then copy the lot to the Sun asking for help before a child gets hurt. Make sure you c.c. the list of recipients so that everyone knows who has received a letter.

Then stand back and watch backsides start twitching.

Potty

[green thing]

The headmaster has been working with the local PC some of the more persistent offender have
had home visits from the man in a funny hat.
The headmaster and staff have been confronting drivers but this soon stopped
and I've been advised by them not to put myself in danger?
I can only assume the teacher have been told where to go by some of the parents.

As for the governers one of them threatened to have me arrested for harassments
After I told them to move off the pavement/lines.
Absolutely no consideration for the children safety whatsoever.

The local councillor been in touch with highways
And they are not prepared to put line around junction and have no funding available

I've also asked for the council to approach the problem with
Coordinated effort using the child safety team giving out
road safety homework . And a feature in the local council rag.
No reply as yet
MP next step

Do you think the existing restrictions are adequate outside school given the increase in parents who drive kids to school
We have 200+ cars turning up around twenty to nine. You physical can't get onto the pavement sometimes .
This happens away from the restrictions
I can remember the yellow zig. Zags outside school but no cars
I think idea of the zig Zags was to all passing drivers a clear view outside school
Whilst the cars are passing.
We now have gridlock outside the schools with children weaving between slow moving cars
Children are more likely to get squash on the pavement than run over in the road ?