Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Illegal parking out St Mary's primary school, N15
I am truly at my wit's end with the parents and the school.
Despite there being a glut of available safe places to park within 100m of the school, parents continue to park on the pavement and the school's emergency exits, blocking pedestrians from using the pavement.
I have tried extensively to engage the school in collaborating with the local community to find a solution to this issue, but the school has consistently refused to meet to discuss this, or to try to implement any solutions. The school's reply is that simply it is for the council to deal with, despite the clear safety issues for their children, and local children and pedestrians.
Cones are now put on Hermitage road after extensive local pressure and council intervention. Unfortunately these have simply displaced the problem as parents now park on the school's emergency exits, and on the corner of Hermitage road and Templeton road. This is often with all 4 wheels on the pavement, which forces children to walk on a busy and dangerous road.
The council will occasionally send a parking attendant out, but this only temporarily resolves the issue. The police do not have the resources to help, understandably.
It is clear that the school is in a unique position to resolve this by communicating with parents and engaging with the local community, but have consistently refused to. They refuse to answer calls on this matter, and the reception staff are rude and aggressive.
Any suggestions on finding a solution to this issue?
I am hopeful that it can be resolved despite the inaction of the school, as it is not an issue outside other local primary schools where parents either walk, take public transport, or manage to park safely.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Natasha * on
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I do have a whole collection of photos Rob! I will try to work out how to post them. I tried earlier and it didn't work.
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I agree that this is an issue, especially as the pavement is currently closed on the other side of the road. I just walked home with my 2 children (4 and 7) from Chestnuts school and found a delivery van blocking the pavement, while waiting at the closed entry gates. We were forced to walk in the road. Not safe.
I don't blame the delivery driver - I can't see that he really had an alternative as there's nowhere safe to stop nearby. Whether or not this is the school or the council's issue seems moot to me - if they are going to arrange deliveries (and obviously they need to) then they need to also arrange a safe spot for drivers to load.
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I agree Tom. Ideally there would be a cooperative approach between the council, school, and local community in my opinion. Do you have any ideas how to address the situation?
The school denying any responsibility and refusing to engage with the local community is not helpful. If I was a parent with children at the school I would be concerned regarding the obstruction to an emergency evacuation, as well as the obstruction to emergency access, as well as forcing children to walk on the road. I'm surprised the parents at the school aren't pressurising the school to resolve this for the safety of their children, and instead seem annoyed at local residents for raising the issue.
In terms of deliveries for the school, the obvious solution would seem to me to have the school caretaker open the gate and allow the vehicles to park on site. This wouldn't help with the issue of parents parking on the exits all the time though.
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Hi Natasha, re "have the school caretaker open the gate", vehicles still need to stop to use the intercom, so I'm not sure this is practical.
Perhaps it would be better to approach the school regarding the issue with delivery vehicles (and other vehicular access to the site) if they aren't willing to take responsibility for inconsiderate parents. It's difficult to stop individuals behaving badly, and at the end of the day parking enforcement isn't the school's responsibility. But they do need to make practical (and safe) arrangements for deliveries, and it keeps the topic of pedestrian safety outside the school on the agenda.
Things did get better when the cones arrived. But with the building work over the road things went backwards again...
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A fair point regarding waiting for the caretaker, I guess the hope would be that this would be brief, rather than prolonged parking on school exits.
The school have made it clear that in no uncertain terms are they ever willing to engage with the community (refusing to meet to discuss this, not answering emails, and hanging up the phone and making threats when called). I could try approaching this via the residents forum instead.
I agree parking enforcement is not their responsibility, but ensuring children have a safe learning environment is, and that includes clear exits in the case of an emergency. The school appears to not have even written to parents to ask them not to park on the exits or pavements.
A good suggestion I have seen is a big sign that reads 'Parking on the school exits is both dangerous and ignorant' or similar.
It is clear that the school does need to be involved at least to solve this issue (both deliveries and parents).
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