Parking fine while picking up children

Tilt

Coupon-mad wrote: »

Glad to see that even though this OP is now PPR'd and posted in the WRONG FORUM and got WRONG ADVICE AT FIRST, he finally got the voice of reason from Tilt.

'Assisted boarding/alighting exemption' anyone? Or have you not heard of it on the motoring board? Surely don't tell me you all think single/double yellow = no parking?

Obviously not CM judging by the amount of 'likes' to the negative comments.

System

Coupon-mad wrote: »

Glad to see that even though this OP is now PPR'd and posted in the WRONG FORUM and got WRONG ADVICE AT FIRST, he finally got the voice of reason from Tilt.

'Assisted boarding/alighting exemption' anyone? Or have you not heard of it on the motoring board? Surely don't tell me you all think single/double yellow = no parking?

I think what the OP did is stretching that definition beyond breaking point. Assisted boarding/alighting is expecting the person to be at or close to where you park and ready. It does not include waiting at the school gates and chatting to other mums until your child is released.
If she spent the majority of those 9 minutes getting her child into the car then it may be a different case.

marlot

Speaking as a primary school governor, the mayhem outside our school is terrible. Children and parents find it hard to cross the road safely, because inconsiderate parents have parked their cars on the sight lines (marked by single yellow lines). Parents shouting at each other. Drivers on their mobile phones. Drivers stopping on the zig-zag lines, even.

We teach the children courtesy, kindness and to care for each other. They then leave the school to parents having a free for all. I'd put the parents in detention if I could.

The school has little power alas. Whenever a local resident complains, I point out that the school does put notices in the school newsletters - and that if it is a problem they should inform the police and/or the council.

Iceweasel

I have to admit that Coupon-mad is correct in that everyone deserves the correct advice as to how to prepare a defence.

We have all - myself included- been too judgemental of the OP.

We really don't know the full circumstances.

However the OP ought to have given us some reasons in the opening post to be sympathetic to their predicament - perhaps the OP or the child has 'difficulties' and /or other factors are involved that made parking for 9 minutes necessary.

But 9 minutes is a long time for picking up kids from school.

Any local councillor will tell you that a huge percentage of their mail from annoyed constituents concerns school safety and thoughtless parking congestion caused by parents.

It comes equal to dog-mess on the pavement and the perpetrators are treated with equal contempt.

dacouch

Bearing in mind the exactness of the 9 minutes eg rather than the usual rounding to the nearest large number eg saying they were away from the car for 10 minutes. I suspect the 9 minutes they were away from the car is the amount of time their car was observed by the parking attendant with no signs of loading.

iammumtoone

dacouch wrote: »

Bearing in mind the exactness of the 9 minutes eg rather than the usual rounding to the nearest large number eg saying they were away from the car for 10 minutes. I suspect the 9 minutes they were away from the car is the amount of time their car was observed by the parking attendant with no signs of loading.

That is a very valid point. I don't know anything about parkng regulations but would assume like you say the car has to be observed for a period of time with no one returning for a ticket to be issued.

If that is the case I would be interested to hear from the motoring experts if 9 minutes of not returning to the car would be seen as a reasonable time frame to appeal?

anotherbaldrick

i got a ticket. When i came back there were packs of parking people nailing people on the school run

This reads to me that things had got out of hand and some were taking liberties and parking without consideration and dangerously. No doubt a complaint was made to the school authorities who contacted the Police who arranged a blitz. Tough if anyone innocently got caught up in it.

Iceweasel

dacouch wrote: »

Bearing in mind the exactness of the 9 minutes eg rather than the usual rounding to the nearest large number eg saying they were away from the car for 10 minutes. I suspect the 9 minutes they were away from the car is the amount of time their car was observed by the parking attendant with no signs of loading.

Very true - as an ex-white-van-man I have to say that although in the 'eyes of the law' - 'loading does not need to be seen, for loading to take place' I used to get a bit worried if there was a delay with the paperwork side of loading after 5 mins.

I thought that was about the limit of how long a warden would wait beside the vehicle.

For a car I would expect them to wait less - so 9 minutes with no signs of a driver would be pushing it.

I don't feel the warden was at all over-zealous in this instance - which is the complaint you usually hear.

Mojisola

marlot wrote: »

Speaking as a primary school governor, the mayhem outside our school is terrible. Children and parents find it hard to cross the road safely, because inconsiderate parents have parked their cars on the sight lines (marked by single yellow lines). Parents shouting at each other. Drivers on their mobile phones. Drivers stopping on the zig-zag lines, even.

We teach the children courtesy, kindness and to care for each other. They then leave the school to parents having a free for all. I'd put the parents in detention if I could.

The school has little power alas. Whenever a local resident complains, I point out that the school does put notices in the school newsletters - and that if it is a problem they should inform the police and/or the council.

In all the years that I was a governor the way parents parked was a problem. It was very interesting to watch the parents' behaviour change when our local policeman came and stood at the gates - they would go to park as usual, see him and suddenly find that they were quite capable of parking safely further away from the school and walking a short distance. They were obviously well aware that the way they parked was wrong and not safe but the next day they'd be back parking badly again.

prowla

I would assume that loading means being at the vehicle and actively putting things in or taking them out, rather than leaving the car to go and wait for someone.

Since it was near a school, you might assume that the lines were put there specifically because parents we causing an obstruction or hazard of some sort.

However, according to the Highway Code, there should be signage to indicate when not to park on a single yellow. You might assume that the parking warden knew the times, but you never know.

My opinion is that it's a fair cop, but you never know...