Row over parking outside school

“Something has gone very wrong with school catchment areas. Schools are supposed to serve their local community and if they did most children would be within walking or cycling distance. Instead it's turned into a semi-social meeting point for parents who rush there on the way to or the way back from work. Or you get the kids living near one school being driven to a school further away crossing over with the kids living near that school coming the opposite direction to the first school.
It's crazy.
The parking, double yellow lines, traffic lights, woes of local residents , PCSOs all show it's gone wrong.
Local schools for local kids”

“I wholeheartedly agree with 'incheltenham'. As a local resident, our child attended Lakeside School. We petitioned for, and secured, a crossing to enable children safely to cross the road. It beggars belief now, that parents feel they can park anywhere and anyhow, and then dodge between cars in an effort to cross the road.

When we moved to our home over twenty years ago, we recognised that with a school nearby there would be an increase in vehicles and people twice a day. But this traffic is now at a level where it is only a question of time before there's an accident.

Might I suggest that Stuart Fowler spends a week near the School between 8.40 and 9.15am and also around the afternoon turnout period, at times when our hard-pressed police officers and PCSOs are unable to attend, and then review his comments.”

“The comments from Stuart Fowler emphasise just how out of touch he is with the reality of problems in the parish. Surely it is time he stood down as chairman of the parish council.

Even people who don't live next to the school know this is much more than a 10 minute problem.”

“Cosmicc, the police can do one thing which will seriously inconvenience 99% of people who behave this way... http://tinyurl.com/9j9peho”

“Cosmicc, yes I have had experience of that school when I have visited my friend who lives there. They park on both sides of the pavement outside the school, on a road that is already very narrow, leaving barely enough room for cars to squeeze through. These days I make sure I am pointing the other way to avoid having that particular nightmare.”

“Another 'I moved near a school and now complain it's busy at start/finish times' ...... not the first time people have pulled this one.

You just go out before/after it if it's a regular thing”

“Try mornings,lunchtime and afternoons at St Pauls,Gloucester.Cars on pavements,double yellow lines,on corners,anywhere the drivers can get them.Say anything and you get a mouthful of abuse,usually along the lines of "what's it got to do with you",at least from the ones who can speak English.
The problem goes away if there's a PCSO or police presence.Strange that.
Nothing wil happen until either:
1) a child ges injured,or
2) a few drivers get booked and word gets out.”

“An inconvenience for about 10 minutes a day !!! I think not, there is a school a few hundered yards from where I live. It is situated on a very steep hill. Twice a day and for a sight more than 10 minutes a day there are cars parked up the hill
all the way to bottom, leaving very little space or vision for oncoming traffic in either direction. Last week and not for the first time, I and a car and motorbike behind me had to reverse down the hill to let cars coming down the hill to pass. You cannot see until you are committed traffic coming the other way, because the road also is curved, and they are parked from top to bottom. Do these witless parents have the sense to leave spaces between cars for pull in points, so that cars can pass safely, nope that would mean they would have to walk a few extra yards. The problem is just about everwhere, my Mother lives in Churchdown, and if I visit her during the week I make sure I have baled out of Churchdown by 2.30pm, because then there is the same senario, cars as far as the eye can see. Once while I had the misfortune to be there at kicking out time, one cheeky blighter even parked on the nieghbours own private drive. One idiot apparently parks daily on the corner of the road opposite, blocking anyone trying to turn off into the road they theyn are using as a parking spot. As for give and take, its all take from the parents and very little give, they seem to think that they have a god given right to park anywhere while dropping off their children.”

“Most parents and children could walk half a mile to school if they tried.”

“With due respect to Mr Fowler, the problem is not just for 10 mins a day, and it has been getting worse for years.

The police and PCSOs have tried to sort it out. People park on the yellow lines right on the junction of Hatherley Road and Wards Road even though it's forbidden during school hours (purposefully introduced a while ago as a safety measure) - except when the police/PCSOs are in attendance so the people who do it know they shouldn't! Gloucestershire Constabulary safety signs were put up imploring people to park responsibly. One woman who parked regularly on a grass verge was seen debating this with a PCSO. Some drivers pull in and out of the side of the road with practically no warning, others open the car doors road-side to attend to children and some have also been known to use people's private drives for turning.

If the local 'youth' was seen so blatantly breaking the law and being as inconsiderate and dangerous as this day after day, I think there would be more 'harrumphing' at council meetings and maybe more action. And just because this sort of thing happens elsewhere, it doesn't excuse it here.”