Child Playing Chicken

MamaMoo_2

Outside my house there's a car park. We're a small cul de sac of four houses, and so people don't really come down here other than residents and the occasional visitor, however the car park is very small (6 spaces) so most cars park elsewhere.
Until December last year it was hardly used, and so often children would play in the car park due to the lack of front gardens or a nearby green space.
It wasn't really an issue as people driving down here knew and were always cautious, and there's a long enough driveway type road down to the car park, so the kids had enough warning to move.
They'd only play ball in the car park if there were no cars there, and if there were cars in the car park, the kids would keep well away with bikes etc. and wouldn't have balls about.
However, one of the houses down here has a son who has decided that he will race alongside cars coming down the driveway (dangerously close) and will run behind and around cars that are manoeuvring into the spaces. It's happening with every car that comes down here now.
He's only about 4/5 and is often running the streets until 10 or later at night.
He lives at the only household down here that doesn't have a car, so his parents can't see how annoying and downright dangerous it is.
The main issue we have is none of us feel we can approach his parents as they're both on drugs and both quite gobby/chavvy.
I'm not entirely sure what else we can do as my next door neighbour has only been driving for a few weeks and she came to me in tears tonight as she nearly hit him when he ran out from behind a van and then behind her when she was reversing.
I don't drive, but my husband does, but obviously we're all getting worried that at some point this is going to end up in an injury.
Obviously, everyone is driving slowly in the car park, but it still wouldn't be nice to hit the lad, neither for him not the driver.

Does anyone have any suggestions?
So far we've stopped all our children playing in the car park, even though it was never an issue, so that our kids will set a precedent, but it hasn't made a difference.

Elsewhere

I think I'd ask the police for advice about this. Perhaps they'd send a Community Safety Officer to have a word with the parents as a first step? You could email them what you've said here - it makes the situation very clear.

Valli

I would go with Elsewhere's suggestion; excellent advice there!

pollypenny

If a four or five year old is playing out at 10 in the night, it sounds like a case for social services!

marywooyeah

pollypenny wrote: »

If a four or five year old is playing out at 10 in the night, it sounds like a case for social services!

^^^ this! especially if the parents are on drugs! I would ring social services asap. It sounds like you'd be placing yourself at risk if you approached the parents directly so it would be better to invite a qualified professional to handle the situation.

MamaMoo_2

I'll definitely try speaking to the community policing team, have managed to source their email.
They are under social services as when my neighbour phoned up with regards to her seeing them shooting up, social services said they were aware of the family.