Felix.

Our glorious council is about to propose parking restrictions around my son & daughters school. This will include all major and minor roads for about a 1 mile radius. They have given an address for objections to be passed.

Is it worth writing in and has anyone done it. What would be the best argument to use against it? I have a number of issues with it but just wondered if anyone else has been in the same boat and got a result.

Jap2Scrap

I figure it's an attempt to stop parents giving able bodied kids lifts to and from school in their X5's...

Good luck with getting help, you'll probably find most on here support the council on this.

prodriva

Even if the council receive lots of objections they can still impose the parking restrictions on a temporary order or experimental order. The problem is about 85% of childern being dropped off by their parents live within a 10 minute walk of the school. Surely you notice the reduction in traffic during school holidays??? Then again nothing will stop the 4x4, people carrier brigade from stopping on double yellows and even the zig-zags outside schools to drop their single offspring off. Madness, and sheer lazyness

Felix.

I know.

I can see their point. But from our point of view, we are looking after our children’s best interests. We live about 5 miles from the school and use this one as it feeds into the better secondary schools. We both work full time and so need to be able to drop the kids of at school.

The council proposals will simply push the parking problems further a field. I feel it will also open up the main road and increase the traffic speed - so perhaps more accidents.

unclebuck

Good Idea. I hope they enforce it and cleanse the lazy profligate slob's from our roads.

*Jen*

Well, I work for a glorious Council... it's likley there is good reason for hte restrictions being processed as this is a legal requirement which has to be stated on the notice. Unlike some like to believe we can't just go around putting in restrictions for the hell of it! (although we can put them in temporarily as explained above, but then we do have to have a reason for doing that to )

It's a legal process so each objection has to be delt with, write in with your reasons and it's likely they will go before the Councillors to either amend/uphold or overrule, again - if it goes to public meeting you have a right to speak. Some Councils will have devolved responsbility for dealing with objections (with the heading of engineering or such like...) but will have to be dealt with and not ignored - a reason will be given if it is overrulled

Contact your local Councillor or write a letter if you have a valid restriction, 'I'll have to walk a bit further' is unlikley to get sympathy

Personally, if I recieve objections to a proposal I'll speak to the objector and try to come to an agreement, so if there's a quality Council Officer like me you may be in luck

Hope that helps,

Jen

*Jen*

P.S.

...parking restrictions around Schools are usually put in with some form of traffic calming (usually crossing islands or pinch points), so maybe worth checking this out first

prodriva

Blimey, your Council would have a field day with that statement

Does the school not have a coach/bus that tours the area picking up the kids? I know the school bus/coach thing has been discussed on here before but these schemes really do work and reduce a huge amount of vehicle trips. What about getting your kids bikes and allwoing them to cycle to school? Most schools operate a cycling proficiency scheme to teach the kids safe cycling.

At the end of the day parent+child private car school trips are a massive issue that councils are becoming more vigilant on in trying to drastically reduce and in some cases eliminate.

prodriva

Ha ha, who can tell (aside from Jen's admission to working for a council) which one of us works in the public sector and which works in the private sector? Just to confirm I work for a Highways and Transportation consultancy

SJ_Skyline

Be careful what you wish for!!

This happened to us nearly 2 years ago. We were told that we and the surrounding roads were to be placed with parking restrictions. One of the other roads opted out completely. As it was the only one to opt out, EVERYBODY now tries to park on it making it very hard to get traffic through.

On the whole I think we have been net winners with less traffic in our vicinity despite having to pay for permits on top of the over-inflated council tax.... (not sure which smilie to use with that!! )