The school run is rife with stress for many parents. Getting children to their place of learning and heading off to work is often a race against the clock, but parents and caregivers pulling up outside the school gates could now face a hefty penalty.
To protect the safety of children, counties around the UK are trying to tackle traffic around schools. Leicestershire County Council has made the news with its ‘School Keep Clear’ scheme. Costing half a million pounds, the scheme includes a camera patrol car and more parking restrictions around schools.
Smile for the camera
The patrol car, driven by Enforcement Officers, uses a mounted camera with automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR) to catch parents found parked on zigzag markings outside their children’s schools.
Offenders will receive an automatic fine of £70 through the post, and, as with all parking fines, seeks to act as both punishment and a deterrent against repeating the violation.
Thirty-two Leicester schools who already have the mandatory markings are taking part in the scheme. A further 25 schools have signed up, awaiting work to make the zigzag zones enforceable.
Leicester was one county to install child-shaped bollards outside one of their schools, to get motorists to reduce their speed in the 20mph zone, by fooling drivers into thinking schoolchildren were trying to cross the road. The bollards cost £350 each, yet a car soon hit one.
After guidance from health organisations, some local authorities are considering ‘no-idling’ zones, to safeguard children against pollution, with fines for motorists who leave their cars running outside schools.
Other areas are going further by closing the roads around schools to most traffic during the school run, with some using temporary bollards at drop-off and collection times.
Even people without children will agree that the safety of children is an important issue. Reducing the chance of a road traffic incident and health problems from the pollution cars cause—for residents living near schools, too—is something to encourage. Yet, gone are the days when all children attend their nearest school and, with both parents often working, many people are trying to balance the school run and their own drive to work. These parents may have little choice but to use their cars.
Driving a wedge
In Leicester, Councillor Blake Pain, Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport said:
“We’re launching the scheme which essentially makes more zigzag zones enforceable outside schools and we believe it will go some way to alleviating concerns.
“We work closely with schools and colleges to improve issues around on-street parking as well as pedestrian and pupil safety and we invited schools to register their interest in the scheme.
“Ideally, the schools and local communities will work together to encourage parents to park appropriately on the school run, and we provide help and guidance on school travel plans to help tackle the problem where necessary.”
Despite much support for such traffic-calming around our schools, the measures will not be popular with others.
Paul Whiteman, General Secretary at the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), said many parents had to make the school run via car on their way to work, and many schools and surrounding roads were not equipped for this reality, leading to congestion, pollution and road safety issues.
He added: “Fines are often a blunt tool for councils to use, and can drive a wedge between parents and schools even though head teachers have no role in administering them.
“Councils must work with schools and local communities to ensure that roads around schools work for everyone,” he said.
Striding for change
It may come as no surprise that yellow zigzag markings have confused many drivers over the years. While rule 243 of the Highway Code says drivers cannot stop or park near a school entrance unless forced to do so by stationary traffic, the rules are a tad ambiguous.
Although parking on the zigzag lines isn’t always an offence, these markings are to warn drivers not to park, for the safety of children. Therefore, you may commit an offence by ignoring the markings if you cause an obstruction, and, while the local authorities can’t issue a penalty, the police can give you a ticket.
In some areas, the zigzag lines come along with a Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) which makes it an offence to park and could land drivers with a Penalty Charge Notice fine (PCN), but these areas must have a sign to warn drivers. Without the sign, yellow zigzag lines are not legally enforceable. A PCN is a civil matter, not a criminal one and won’t result in a criminal record or points on your licence.
If you find yourself never able to park near your children’s school and it’s not impossible for you to get the kids to class any other way, why not consider an alternative mode of transport?
Lots of schools work together with the council and UK Sustainable Transport Charity, Sustrans to encourage schoolchildren to get to school without the car. There are schemes such as ‘Park and Stride’, Walking Buses, and other initiatives designed to encourage pupils to cycle, scoot, or walk to school.
Not only do these car substitutes reduce gridlock around schools and reduce pollution, but they also give children their important daily exercise. Something we can all agree is a good idea.
Are you a parent struggling to park during the school run? What do you think about these school traffic-calming measures? Do you live or drive near a school where these actions are in force? Give your opinion in the comments.
In my area parents dropping off in the zig-zag lines have been fined for a few years now. It just transfers the chaos a 100m or so down the road in each direction but doesn’t reduce traffic passing the school but increases its speed between the chaos areas.
Alas – true
It is about time parking on these lines was made totaly illegal. When I ask driver not to park on them I am often given a lot of verbal abuse.
Probably cause you is not the police.
Why should it make a difference if you are a Police Officer to ask someone not to be a selfish inconsiderate idiot and think of others? There is a reason for the rule – perhaps everyone should remind idiots and peer pressure should be enough. Perhaps then we can get rid of fines that cause people hardship and only use the Police to arrest prosecute and imprison the ones that continually refuse to moderate there inconsiderate selfish and dangerous behaviors.
It has been illegal to park in these ZigZag lines ever since they were introduced years ago, but the police can’t be bothered to visit school areas
Another left wing idiots ideas aimed to cash more from motorists.
they should go to a doctor!
Cars idling whilst drivers waiting for children is big problem, no so bad when weather mild, but if very Hot or Cold drivers arrive early & sit reading paper, chating on phone, whilst car pushes out exhaust fumes to all in area
7.62mm??? must be the size of your brains. If anyone needs to go to a doctor it’s you
More likely the size of the round they’d wish to use on themselves to remove said brains!
Idiots put childrens lives at risk. Politics doesn’t come into it. This is ONLY about the safety of children!
Is there any proof that stopping outside a school to drop off children is dangerous? Or are cars outside school a good chance to teach children to be careful near traffic?
Yes. It’s dangerous. Outsideyou daughters primary school it is packed with cars on the zigzagsame. Just because they can’t be bothered to walk a few yards if they parked further down the street. I struggle to see if it’s safe to cross the road my daughter at her height cannot. The aim of the zigzagsame is to create an area where a child can safely see what is on the road. If a child is crossing or cycling it is incredibly dangerous when all it takes to be safe is parents to not be so selfish!
all this chat and no mention of councils having to provide school buses? this takes parents off directly to work and reduces congestion and pollution especially if they are electric.
I have no sympathy for those who insist on parking outside schools on yellow zig-zags, double parking, causing a nuisance. Most live in the vicinity of the school and could easily walk with their off springs. If a child was involved in an accident outside the school they would be the first ones complaining about the parking. The signs and markings are there to protect their children, not the residents. Perhaps fining them is the only way they will sit up, listen and learn.
I have little or no sympathy for parents who insist on driving their children to school. I would like to see a levy against those who use their cars for school runs. The risk to health of teh children is high and do parents realise they’re adding to teh pollution pocket around teh vicinity of teh school
Spoken by someone who has no idea what they’re talking about. I drive my son to school because the nearest secondary schools are 2.4 miles away, which means that they aren’t far enough to qualify for school buses (that distance is measured as the crow flies and does not take into account the actual required route) but are too far to walk, a walk that would take him through the busiest roads in the city centre anyway. As a walker myself I would gladly see him walking to school and back, but the logistics and safety simply don’t support that. City traffic also precludes the use of his bicycle for safety reasons.
However I do agree with any move that goes towards ensuring parents do not contravene the Highway Code. I have seen some absolutely appalling parking, complete lack of consideration (to both neighbours, other parents and other road users) and near accidents to children caused by parents who are too distracted by their own children to concentrate on the act of driving. I support any initiative that hits them hard and would prefer to see fines in excess of £70. Thankfully, my son’s school is not one of the ones that has sold off swathes of land due to its increased value and provides on-site facilities for dropping children off. That still doesn’t prevent some ill-mannered parents from lacking consideration, but does at least stop their activities affecting other road users.
Another muppet after a free bus trip. The is nothing stopping them from using the bus other than you not wanting to pay.
When I was a child I was out side of the boundary for school and receive a buss pass to get me there, I never used it. I walked 3.2 miles there and back each day come rain or c=shine because I chose to do so. I had 7 major roads to cross to get there and never had an accident. Yes I agree traffic has changed since I went to schools and there are many more cars on the road but the danger is still there so I disagree with your comment. I did this walk from the first year of secondary school so your child could walk and I lived in the east end of London
I thought initially you were from Yorkshire since this reminded me of the old Monty Python sketch. You didn’t finish with ‘… you tell that to the yoong people of today’. Perhaps you haven’t tried walking through cities these days, and even worse, cycling. To reiterate what I said, I’m a walker myself (a serious walker, i.e. I’ll happily walk 25 miles or more in a day), but I wouldn’t want my children risking the walk to school with the traffic we have today, and that’s not to mention the weirdos that modern society tolerates (which your generation would never have).
A the modern stranger danger worry, despite the fact kids harmed by strangers are no higher now than when Terry went to school. We need more people walking on the streets I am from Yorkshire and I walked 2 miles to school every day there wasn’t a bus until I was in the 6th form we just got on with it, most of the traffic is caused because people have more cars and can drive kids to school not that it is the only option.
Quite right – the old chicken-and-egg situation: what came first – the traffic problems that discourage parents from letting their children walk to school, OR the traffic problems caused by the parents worried about their chldren walking to school…??
Yes and so did I, I walked 1.7 miles across one of the busiest roads with little traffic lights. I got caned by a taxi and spent months in hospital – I was lucky I lived – 3 boys in my class were not so lucky. A further 28 boys died before changes were made and my school was not the worst for this. So like me you were perhaps a bit luckier mate. Oh and I was crossing at the only crossing, the light was red and both myself and the lollipop man got hit and the taxi did not stop.
About time,to many people ignore the road markings and get away with it
About time. To many people ignore the road marks and get away with it
The best thing to do is line up children who are going to be collected by car in order of cars arrivals and cars will queue in a single line, like American schools. In those roads with two ways there will always be one way free of obstacles to circulate while the other will be used for parents. Therefore, you enter from one rod and exit from a different one.
It will probably be longer in the car but will be for children’s safety as no one needs to step out the car or look for parking. It is just organisation.
I agree with this, however how come every new shop, lidl ,aldi, whatever only ever gets one entrance, this always causes congestion. and by congestion I mean. The civil servants who made/approved this will one day be taken to court for manslaughter, nope i’m not crazy, the simple truth is the decision has increased pollution and made people ill, and will kill others that are too weak / old, I cant wait for this to actually happen.
Bring it on. Zigzag lines are there for safety and should be inviolable. It puts a protective buffer around the kids and gives them a safe view to cross the road.
The presence of 30yds of effectively double yellow lines is hardly material as far as “never able to park near your children’s school” is concerned. By all means have your say about parking and access, but leave the zigzags out of it.
There has to be some form of deterrent, illegal parking on pavements outside of schools are not fair to pedestrians with prams or disabled scooter users. If enough fines are enforced it may eleviate the problem short term but a better solution should be looked at.
The problem is that although the Highway Code states that ‘you should not park on the pavement’, this is apparently an ‘advisory’ statement. As a regular walker I detest this complete lack of consideration shown by motorists and firmly believe that the ‘should not’ be replaced by ‘must not’. The delay in taking this step has led too many motorists to assume that it’s OK to park on pavements by default.
Yet RTA 1988 Section 34 – says you must not drive on or over a footpath ……….. Legally most ‘pavements’ as people refer to them as are actually footpaths. Many title deed to properties contain the following statement ‘bounded by the footpath’
It has always been an offence to stop or park on zig zag lines. Read the Highway Code. Zig zags were first introduced in 1949 It’s unbelievable that local authorities are now touting this as a new form of offence. Where have they been all these years.
This extracted from a motoring forum on the web.
“While it may be well known that you can’t park on yellow zig-zag lines, you also can’t wait or even stop momentarily to drop off or pick up passengers, according to the UK Highway Code.“
Agreed, I got fined in 1979 for just that offence. Due to ignorance at the time, however I learned not to do it again.
Nigel you are so right – Look up Code 27 violations where you also cannot stop same thing. However you have to ask the Council to enforce the code 27 and even then they do not consider it an issue. ever since hte act changed in 2004 to decriminalise parking offences and make them civil councils have used this as a revenue tool primarily. Start looking at the increased calls to Police forces the aggression being used the ”criminal”damage to cars parked illegally the criminal assault on residents by illegally parked drivers and the criminal assault on bad parkers by residents. add in the inabilty to get thru the obstructions by ambulances leading to severe injury and death caused by the selfish idiots parked blocking access and you begin to wonder what Cuckoo’s backside that 2004 law change came out of. So now the Police cannot enforce and the Councils will not as they do not have the resource. Anyone thinking I am kidding just do three Freedom of Information requests One for code 27 violations to the Council one to the police regarding crimes to vehicles and assaulats and calls to incidents involving cars obstructing access and one to the Ambulance re number of calls to same streets and time taken to get to hospital etc. I did this and there was 1 enforcements in the 7 year period despite 1498 calls from one road. The assaults rose from none to over 112 except for the last two years as they were closed within hours and not attended or followed up. in those last two years there was 1 death 1 permanent serious heart damage and nine serious injuries. That is without the hundreds of anti social behavior and common assauls and petty damage.
I only did three roads in my borough and a friend did four in his in a different city. But the results were the same. Perhaps some Universiy or Media business might like to do a large study or a lot of us do hundreds of little studies like I did and post them. I am pretty sure our areas are not isolated and this is happening across the U.K
In Wellington near me the police and traffic wardens don’t want to know about cars on double yellows or right outside the schoold. They just say “well they have too park somewhere”. It a time bombuyers waiting for someone to get knocked over again. Personally I think all homes within 200 Mtrs of schools should have a hardstand and NO parking within the 200 Mtrs during schoolin/out times.
I welcome this.When is it coming to Bournemouth.? I live 3 houses from a school & I see motorist breaking the law each day.It has been reported,& all we get told is that the Traffic Wardens will look into it.But of course nothing happens.
I see no mention of the inconvenience this causes to local residents. My drive is constantly blocked by parents parking and leaving their cars unattended whilst chatting to other parents
When the law allows the owner of a driveway to clamp and remove vehicles obstructing access or parking on their drive – Or miraculously Councils do this again themselves you will find it does not happen so much. In London two irate residents asked illegally and abstructive drivers to move their cars and got sworn at last spring. In return they the next day drove into the road from either end – could not get into their drives and stopped in the middle of the road – both ends – put on the hazards walked home got a cup of tea and waited. The Police arrived 98 minutes later and spent 20 minutes getting cars to reverse, and clear obstructions along with issuing warnings to all those parked on pavements and zig zags (no tickets though as not allowed anymore)- within three days of this the roads somehow became a lot clearer – lots of tickets were issued by parking enforcement and now they regularly patrol there. I think the message they were giving was that anyone can be selfish.
Personally I found that involving the Police, Council enforcement and local Councillors – reporting and photographing every vehicle illegaly parked -reporting every single one for two weeks and if there is no action issue a Community trigger and forcing both the Council and Police to review and act is a more legal and reasonable approach and usually works especially if you get support from the school and council to put in measures that assist parents with getting the children out of cars and safely to school so everyone is happy (ish)
I am an assistant to disabled child and often find able bodied driver parked in the bay for disabled parking – this is absolutely infuriating , these parents are just selfish…. more definately needs to be done. My own children are put at risk almost every day with drivers who think its okay to park on the kerb of the path at the entrance of the school – nobody seems to want to take this dangerous hazard on… good on the council for making a stand – this policy should be rolled out nationwide.
Give your kids a house key and show them how much damage it can do to paint work
Appreciate the sentiment and analogy – but judging by dislikes many do not see the point you are making and just focus on the criminal damage – or perhaps they are the inconsiderate selfish idiots who care nothing about injury and death to children but are livid with the though of a scratch on their nice shiny illegaly parked vehicle.
I I wold like them to come along my road and catch the people who park across my drive.
Try a spell checker
Lucky you, we sometimes get people parked on our driveway, and every school day people turn round at our driveway, my car has been damaged by these people in the past. Just for sport, though inconvenient to us, we occasionally put a sturdy wooden post in the way and quite often it gets broken, hopefully it will have damaged the car that tried to park or turn there.
What is more, this is the local primary school with a poor Ofsted score, people are not coming from miles around to get here, they all probably live within a mile.
just another way of money making ,punishing hard working parent in another word (milking the parents )
I have 2 feelings about this. One is good,, it stops the parents being so lazy that they now have to park further away to actually walk to the school gate and traffic will not be so congested. but the 2nd opposing feeling is that it pushes these parents into parking in residential roads where there is already congested parking from residents. We live near 2 schools, not by choice and I was unaware of them when moving into the area as our children were older. I cannot even get up either road from 2 directions to my house if I come home later than 2.30 and this has now stopped me staying out for afternoon events due to the intolerable way these mothers bully their way through the side roads and cause a jam. I have been a parent and understand the stress of being one, but many of the parental parking with these large 4×4 cars is becoming ridiculous. The answer is school buses of course but the councils are not prepared to run them.
I was a teacher before I retired 5 years ago. We had to try to ensure the safety of pupils leaving the school site. Every parent is most concerned about the safety of their own child(ren), but not quite so concerned about the safety of others’ children. The biggest problem at the school gates is that few parents are prepared to park their cars a reasonable walking distance away – basically a number of them are plain lazy!
Great idea to use ANPR cameras to send out the fines. Same should be done for stopping on double yellow lines to pick up and drop off kids.
Often I see parents stopping at inconvenient places to drop their kids off , double yellow lines, bus lanes and bus stops to name just a few.
I see parents arriving a good half hour before school finished to grab closest spots, blocking driveways, crossings, drop kerbs too with no consideration.
Double the fines I say and any consistent offenders should face ban from stopping anywhere within 500m of schools.
Strange as it sounds, stopping to pick up of drop off on double yellows, is legal as long as it is with in the signed time limits (if any) and there are no pips, as they call them on the curb stone. They were intended for deliveries but the law is vague. What is even stranger is if the driver has legal access to a blue badge they can park on them.
Unfortunately except in London, Birmingham and Manchester, parking on the pavement is not illegal, so at this time nothing can be done about.
As for travelling to school, I never had my parents taking me to school. At primary and junior schools I walked to school whilst at secondary school I had to get 2 buses each way.
Parents don’t want to let their child become more self sufficient.
Actually if the local police did their job properly, they would be able to do something about it. It may not be illegal to park on the pavement per se, but you will find it is illegal to drive on the pavement. Therefore to park on the pavement you have got to broken the law because you drove your car onto the pavement. If your local authority isn’t doing anything about it point this out to them
It is illegal to drive on pavements. If you park on a pavement then you have driven on it therefore you have committed an offence.
Sadly that’s incorrect and down to the stupidity of the current law. Unless your parking (via driving) on a pavement was witnessed by a police officer, then despite your car being parked on the pavement you ‘haven’t’ broken the law (unless in London or other Boroughs that have bye laws in place). Your car being parked on the pavement is (stupidly) no proof that you drove on it. Google away it’s true!
The bit that amazes me is the police know it’s a problem yet I’ve to see any police outside a school, maybe some areas do but not round me. It’s just total havoc and chaos as parent juggle to get as close as possible! Maybe use the things you were born with – LEGS.
No doubt irrelevant to this discussion, but just out of interest: the building in your photo illustrating this article is not a school, and it’s not a public road carrying traffic, so it’s quite hard to see its relevance to the article. In fact it’s a view of the Meadow Building at Christ Church, Oxford, taken from the Meadow itself. The walkers/joggers in the foreground are using the wide footpath called the Broad Walk.
nAbout time this ignorant drivers faced fines. Well done. Just to extend this approach to others who park on pavements.
Lack of action by any of the authorities perpetuates and promotes the offences but no matter what visual signs are used they have to be policed and the excuse is always one of finance. However, if my area is anything to go by the authorities would not only find a policing scheme to be self-financing but it would also turn in a profit… either that or give local residents the power to enforce it for them!!!!¬
They should follow the Isle of Man – no cars are allowed to stop anywhere near a school. The pick up point for the kids is inside the school grounds and off the road, with teachers marshalling the system. Anyone stopping outside the school get three points on their license. A much safer system.
the school run is the biggest bugbear of mine. During the school holidays in Newcastle there is no Rush hour, the mommment the kids are back, Chaos reigns!
The reason schools had catchment areas was so everyone was in walking distance, kids should walk/ be walked to school, by the time they reach secondary they should be independant enough to take themselves, by either walking or using the subsidised public transport provided.
This way the kids are healthier, the road less jammed, and everyone gets better.
I’d go further than this and fine anyone caught driving kids to school
I have been hit twice by this when dropping my grandchildren off at school.It was not on the zig zags, but at the bus stop that has the sign “buses only”. I was over the line by less than 1 metre, (the bus stop is about 60 metres long – enough for about 6 buses) and on each instance they provided photos showing I was stopped for 7 seconds & 8 seconds respectively. This was last year on two consecutive weeks on the same day each week (thursday) but surprise surprise I only received the first one the following Friday, the day after I did it again! otherwise I would obviously have avoided it. I understand that the childrens’ safety is paramount but anyone who knows the site & considering where I stopped there was 100% no issue as regards to safety. Is it just a money maker?
This was Bolton Council outside St James School, Farnworth
Well done. I only live in a Derbyshire village but when parents etc park outside the school there is no way buses or other vehicles can get past for double parking etc. I have written to Derbyshire Council but they don’t seem to be interested.
I live opposite a school gate entrance which is only a matter of a few metres from traffic lights. Yet parents insist on parking their car half on the road and half on the footpath. Then the worse happens. They open the off-side rear door to let their so called precious little darlings out of the car straight into traffic. There have already been accidents and close misses. Does this deter them. in a word, NO. But if they face hefty fines hurting their pockets There will be uproar. Just because they are too lazy to get up a bit earlier, stop somewhere safe a little further away from the school and WALK the rest of the way. Doing themselves, as well as their children a bit of exercise, which everyone benefits from.
Good, it’s about time.
Why do some drivers think it’s ok to park on yellow lines or school zigzags?
Walk your child to school, encourage them to cycle, anything but drive them
fined for going abroad during term time just to be able to afford a holiday, fined for parking outside of school, kids penalised for silly differences in uniform, and a clamp down on home education. we are sleepwalking into authoritarianism.
Mark, rules and laws have little to do with authoritarianism. Switzerland is replete with petty rules and regulations, but it isn’t authoritarian at all. Russia is very authoritarian, but I doubt it has many of the rules that you object to. By the same token, the leaders of authoritarian countries are not constrained by rules either. We gain a lot of freedom from the concept that everybody is subject to rule of law, counterintuitive as it seems.
wasn’t there an incident where someone in a queue of traffic, outside a school, was issued a FPN for parking ?
£70 fine not enough if one of there kids were injured because of the way they park the other driver would be the one blamed
About time to re enforce kids should go to their nearest school., and parents to take them to school ON FOOT.
Time to re-enforce kids to go to their nearest school, and parents to drop them ON FOOT.
I lived for many years opposite a primary /junior school, my mother who was disabled had a disabled parking spot just outside her house. At one point all parking was going to be banned on our side of the road and my mother was going to have to walk to her car a hundred yards away [stopped by our Councillor who lived next door] In the end they have zigzag lines on the school side. and a mass bunfight twice a day to try and park on our side!! In the past I have had arguments with Yummy mummies, double parking, sat with engines running etc etc, until the council introduced a bylaw to sort it out. The cause of all these issues? the school was the best in the area, so everybody wanted their kids to go there
I drive my daughter to school everyday, why you say? because school is 4 miles from home and on my direct route to work. I stop, she gets out I drive off again in the same direction I was heading in the first place. However I do witness many parents parking badly and stopping in the worst places possible.
Its about time something was done about these irresponsible parents who insist on parking their cars within the Zig Zag lines. they have no regard for road safety, if one of their children were involved in a incident and injured by any driver who disregards the parking within the Zig Zags they would be the first to start blaming these drivers who have little regard for the safety of others.
I hope its introduced throughout the country, and starts without delay.
As a one time professional driver it has been my experience that school run drivers are some of the most inattentive, unskilled and selfish road users out there. Blocking roads; even junctions to disembark their child. Opening car doors into oncoming traffic. Letting their precious cargo wander into the road.
Sometime around 1974, I was asked to serve on a Coroner’s jury in Stoke-on-Trent. The case was to decide a verdict on the tragic death of a 10 year old girl who ran between parked cars outside her school gates, straight under the wheels of a passing car.
On retirement we quickly concluded that the death was obviously accidental and I was elected as Jury Foreman. I then suggested to the other jurors that we add a recommendation that this school and all schools should have a no parking zone similar to pedestrian crossings outside schools entrances to prevent a recurrence of this tragedy. This was agreed and added as a rider to the “Accidental Death” verdict.
The Coroner, Mr. Fredrick Hales, expressed his full approval of the idea and ordered that the recommendation be passed to the appropriate government office.
About 1 year later all schools had the yellow zig zag lines painted outside their entrances so I suppose I that I was basically responsible for the introduction of this life saving measure.
This was all prompted by the enormous distress by all parties we witnessed in the court and the fact that we had to view the photographs of the child’s body.
If anyone has any doubt about prosecuting any driver who parks on these yellow lines they should attend any Coroner’s Court when a similar case is being heard. I promise you that you will never do it again.
When my children were of school age we walked them to school. I live opposite a school and each day my drive is blocked we get abuse from parents when we ask them to move as we can not get our own car out. I have no simpathy for parents parking outside the school as a lot of them live only a few yards up the road and that is a fact. It causes an accident waiting to happen and polluting the atmosphere just because they are too lazy
Parking on yellow zigzags is only an offence if accompanied by a TRO (signs would warn you of this). I first came across this outside a primary where people parked everywhere. The answer is to work out a suitable system for parents who have to use cars, and punish those who are plain selfish.
If a person place a car on a no parking zone make them pay a fine and if they do it again double the fine and place the drivers NAME in the local paper.
Double the fine on second offence and place there name in local paper.
Great idea, but this sort of thing should be rolled out over more ‘parking blackspots’
I live in a small village, the furthest you can be from the school is 1/2 mile yet every morning there are queues of car dropping off kids!
This is another great idea, these idiots who think of these schemes have no consideration for local residents, we live in a small cul de sac of only seven properties and this leads to mayhem when parents drop off and pick up their children.
When the school was extended we were promised video cars would take pictures of offending vehicles parking on double yellows ( it never happened )and when a warden comes in uniform the offenders just drive off (another waste of time ).
This new idea takes the motorist away from the school to create chaos elsewhere.
What about the fumes created in our streets by drivers keeping their motors running whilst also blocking the exit from our homes.
New schools should be built with parking on their own premises so parents can safely pick up children but this will never happen.
Makes my blood boil.
Every time I pick my children up from their school (2 or 3 days a week) despite the school having a huge car park, which is never ever full, idiot parents park around the school site on double yellow lines (sadly not police enforceable double yellow lines, as they are within the schools private grounds) , on pavements, drive around and around a central island within school grounds until their child comes out, when they stop, child gets in and they drive off and some even park within the car park, but in the lanes of the car park, blocking other people from getting into and out of proper parking spaces, it is appalling behaviour !
They even line up right right outside the main doors of the school, preventing people leaving the car park who have parked properly, from leaving the site.
The lack of consideration for safety of the children and for other users of the schools grounds is non existent.
Every visit to the school, to safely and responsibly collect my children, only serves to make me extremely angry at the lack of consideration shown by probably 75% of parents or whoever else is collecting children !
Shouldn’t park on the zig zag lines anyway, it’s a no parking zone for safety reasons