Thomas' Parents please don't park on street corners Post Reply

[Needcoffeenow]

Two more practical measures: local authorities ask all schools to have a School Travel Plan to show what measures they are taking to reduce car travel to school. Our children’s schools ran walking buses, for example and got the council to make the cul de sac by the school entrance pedestrian-only. How about asking Thomas’s, as a local resident, what their Travel Plan is? Another is to check with the local authority the most effective way way to report a bad parking ‘blackspot’. Many now have a map you can click on and add the time you saw it. The more clicks, the more timely visits from parking enforcement.

[Tiggy]

Completely agree that trying to walk past Emanuel school during term time is a nightmare. Inconsiderate parking is in abundance. That said they also need to speak to the Emanuel school children too. I am frequently faced with them speeding towards me side by side on on scooters or walking abreast 4-5 abreast and expecting me to stop / step into the road if I want to get passed them.

[gemima]

Same as Thomas' parents near Battersea Square.  About time they stepped our of their 4 x 4's and walked / cycled or took the bus to school.

Prince George's security vehicles just leave their engines on all day (despite me asking them not to all of the time).  I still don't understand why he isn't at a closer school to where he lives!

Eurgh!

[JustWhistle]

Please don’t name and shame on social media. A more dignified and useful response would be to take photos of the cars/people involved and send them to the school, who really will deal with it. 
This post is about so much more than parking. 

A couple of years ago I was with my two children on Northcote Road. I was trapped inside Trotters with my younger child when a mass brawl broke out outside between Bolingbroke pupils. They were all wielding large scissors and slashing each other’s clothing. I stood inside with the Trotters staff and we were all speechless. When the children moved on, the pavement was strewn with pieces of ties, shirts, litter etc. My older child who’d been waiting around the corner in the car, was traumatised when we returned to him. He’d watched on as all these teenagers wielding large scissors, chased down a boy, pinned him down in middle of the road next to the car and, in a frenzied attack, cut the tie off his neck. My son actually thought they were going to stab him. I called the school and asked to speak to the Head.  The lady who I ended up speaking to couldn’t have been less interested. I offered detailed descriptions of the group (some of whom were very distinctive) and I asked if they wanted a photograph of the group as they moved up Northcote Rd towards CJ station. She declined, saying it would be obvious by who didn’t have a tie the next day. When I suggested they maybe they shouldn't be carrying scissors, she explained that they had to have scissors as they needed them for school. I asked for someone from safeguarding or the head could call me the next day. No one ever called.   Now, imagine if I’d reported the story here and everyone had chimed in with ‘That’s so typical of that lot’ or ‘I think you have to carry a knife to go there’ or ‘I bet it asks if you have a knife on the Bolingbroke application form. LOL’ The majority of lovely Bolingbroke families would be really offended, wouldn’t they? Please don’t generalise. Even in a jokey way, it's damaging.  It just perpetuates some silly stereotypes and creates division when we should be one big community. 
Drop off and pick up time is pretty awful around every local school. Perhaps we should be curious about all the cars dropping off at the schools with catchments of 500m. But maybe if they’re not 4x4s they don’t count? 
Thomas’s have 640+ pupils and is larger than most. The vast majority of Thomas’s parents are angry about it too. Take photos and help the school deal with it. It will honestly bring about a swifter resolution than all this sniping.

[dimelda]

Well said, Chorister - who suggested that parents should park a distance away from the school & then walk there.  In fact, I'd suggest that they not drive to the school at all.  They could take public transport - or is that too much to ask of these selfish people?  I suspect it is.  Unless the parent or the child is disabled, then there is no reason at all to take the car.  The school Head should also do something about it - but I'll bet he/she hasn't.  When I was at school - over 50 years ago - our parents weren't allowed to drive us to school.  It was a school rule.  We were expected to take public transport, and we did. 

[Lulubear]

Unless times have changed there were similar problems with Honeywell and Belleville and probably other schools in the area too.  I know these schools now close off the whole street at drop off/pick up time which means the cars parking for drop off/pick up are scattered more widely around the neighbouring streets.  Dinosaurs suggestion on sending photos to safeguarding officers seems like a good one to me. However, unless you see school children with the relevant uniform (or no uniform in the case of Honeywell) getting into the car you may need to send the details to several of the local schools not just the one!

[GuyD73]

Thank you OP for the post and I pretty much concur with 99% of what the other posters have said - this is a huge issue and needs some action from schools, councils and parents. I don’t know that particular Thomas’ well but I see this all over London, private and state schools, dangerous and inconsiderate parking, flinging open doors, idling etc. On my own patch I see parents on their phones in idling SUVs outside Wandsworth Prep and an absolute scene outside Emanuel. I’ve written to the head and his assistant replied, though not with any explanation of what they plan to do.  Idling is now illegal (I think), it can certainly attract a PCN, we just need much better enforcement, particularly around schools. The door thing (particularly hazardous for cyclists) should be addressed by the ‘dutch reach’ section of the newly redesigned Highway Code but that’s for another post - bit disappointed that the DoT publicity for this has been so weak. Sometimes I get the impression that schools (both private and state), take the view that it isn't really their business how parents convey their kids to school and I strongly disagree. I think schools absolutely have a responsibility to try and encourage more sustainable behaviour from their parents and shouldn't be shy in doing so!  A vanishingly small number of parents NEED to drive to school. I bet many of those Emanuel families live between the commons, less than a 1km away and could walk/cycle through the common! No, they drive because they like the comfort, convenience and high driving position of their SUV and they’re jolly well going to use it, regardless of the impacts of pollution, congestion and compromised road safety that it inflicts on the rest of the community. It is in many cases I’m afraid to say a deeply selfish act. All of you in your range rovers need to consult your moral compass and make sure it’s still there.   Anyway, I’ll be getting my phone out and documenting the worst instances, both for the purposes of naming and shaming, and to encourage schools and councils to take more (and much stronger), remediating action. Mercifully we are gradually getting better and safer cycling infrastructure and public space and this will continue in London, as in cities across Europe as we repurpose road space away from card dominance in a way that’s fairer to other road users and encourages active travel. (so you lot hating on cyclists, cycle lanes and LTNs, you’re part of this problem too - but that’s ok I guess, you are emphatically losing the argument on these issues).  Anyway, I work for a cargo bike company called Pedal Me, which has 75 bikes in London currently and growing fast. We’re talking to schools and LAs about offering a school run service on our bikes, collecting up to 3 kids at a time, with tracking technology and DBS checked riders.  If any of you would like to know more, or would like me to talk to your school, do DM me a phone number and email. A page with all the details will be up soon. In the meantime, see Pedalme dot co dot uk.  There is a zero emissions, congestion busting solution to this age-old problem, and we’re going to deliver it, you’ll be pleased to hear!

[dimelda]

To Guy D73.  What an uplifting post.  Good for you!   Please continue to take photos – the more these thoughtless, selfish parents are named & shamed, the better.   As you say, they hate cyclists, cycle lanes and LTNs, demonstrating also their ignorance.   As for the schools & their heads, don’t hold your breath – they’re unlikely to do anything about it.  I’m heartened by your statement that a ‘… vanishingly small number of parents NEED to drive to school’.  Spot on.  The bottom line is that they’re lazy, selfish & inconsiderate.  As parents, what appalling examples they are.

[GuyD73]

Thanks for the kind words Dimelda. 

I just think the key to decarbonising cities is discouraging short journeys by car and make all other options better and safer - stick and carrot - and a big part of that is the school run. 

Anyway, I've set up a group for Battersea and Wandsworth parents who are interested in making more sustainable choices. https://www.facebook.com/groups/328477875846545 

I hope in time when we have established routes and at least two cargo bikes servicing a particular route, then we can create a marshalled convoy with a cargo bike ahead and at the back and a bunch of year 5s and 6s cycling their own bikes in between. I think it's called a 'bike bus'.  

[dimelda]

To GuyD73:  I wish you all the very best with your Bike Bus scheme - I might have seen something like that in Denmark.  (which obviously a much more enlightened country than the one in which we live.)  Good luck in your endeavours.

[dimelda]

To Gemima:  Prince George's security staff leave their vehicle engines idling all day ?   Despite your asking them (nicely, I'm sure) not to.  Now I've heard it all.  What a disgrace.  Write to George's mother ... she might be more than interested to know that her son's 'bodyguards' are displaying such an arrogant attitude, particularly as she's a passionate advocate of climate change campaigns & the environment in general.  


 

[HashBrown]

The (the body guards) also regularly park blocking off the dropped curb which forces pedestrians out into the road to get past their vehicles. I don't know how wheelchair users manage to cross - one can only hope that they move their SUV's for them. They are an absolute nightmare!

[HashBrown]

Thomas's are planning to open a secondary school (close to the Battersea high Street one) on the old premises of the Royal Academy of Dance.

The council have sent out request for comment saying that most of the pupils will walk or take the bus to school. I very much doubt that!

I can't find a link to comment on it, but it might be worthwhile for everyone to comment to the council on the chaos that the current Thomas' sites are with regards to traffic. It might spur the school into doing something about it.

[EHMorris]

Here's an idea  - oversubscribed private schools could take a proactive approach and use home proximity to school as an admissions criteria.   



 

[dimelda]

To EHMorris:  Excellent idea!!  Another admissions criteria could be that parents not be allowed to drive their children to school at all.   In Germany & Spain (& possibly other European countries) children from 5 or 6 walk or cycle to & from school - without their parents.   But, hey, in this country, pigs might fly ...