Parents face fines for driving kids to school as council pilots ban on all traffic at pick up and drop off times
A video still shows a vehicle driving on the pavement in Oldhill Street. Photograph: Hackney Council
Parents at two Hackney schools could be hit with fines for dropping off their children by car.
St John the Baptist in Hoxton and Tyssen Community in Stamford Hill have signed up to pilot road closures during school run hours.
Drivers who are spotted flouting the rules will face fines of up to £130.
The nine-month trials, which aim to improve child safety and cut pollution, are set to begin in June at St John the Baptist and in September at Tyssen. The council has consulted parents and is now gathering opinions from local residents.
A survey conducted at St John the Baptist found nearly 70 per cent of parents opposed the measures, but the reaction at Tyssen has been “positive”.
Headteacher Jackie Benjamin said: “Our school has been working tirelessly to improve safety in Oldhill Street. At pick-up and drop-off times there are daily altercations and drivers will drive on the pavement to avoid traffic.”
In February, the Town Hall posted shocking CCTV footage of five cars using the pavement on Oldhill Street in quick succession, with pedestrians being forced to skirt around them.
Commenting on the impending trials, Hackney Cycling Campaign’s Jono Kenyon said: “The policy delivers on multiple fronts. It improves the environment, cuts dangers to children and reduces childhood obesity – it’s a win-win.”
A report last year revealed 27 primary schools in Hackney breached EU limits for nitrogen dioxide levels, with St John the Baptist among the worst-affected.
A spokesperson for Hackney Council said: “The consultation is due to start at the end of the month, and parents will be feeding back to the schools after the consultation period.”
This is a long time coming , it should be all schools particularly primary schools hoxton garden primary has also become extremely dangerous too the speed drivers use without any care for children who cannot think as quickly as an adult.
Hear hear! I live just off Cazenove road and the school run traffic is ridiculous. Drivers parked up on double yellows, corners, preventing people from crossing safely, drivers parked on zig zags, drivers on their phones, constant horns honking (which is totally futile and antisocial-think of shift workers). I’ve seen road rage and the pollution is disgusting. There needs to be some tighter regulation- so many people clearly feel entitled to break the law/disregard the safety of others.
So the solution is to fine the parents who want their children to go to School on time.
Regrettably unless you live within walking distance and are on a direct bus route and are fortunate to to find a bus which is not full at this time of the morning your options are limited.
It used to be that children would attend their nearest Primary School but today some children come from quite a distance. Many parents who drop their children off to School are on the way to work and have no option if they want to retain their job.
What will happen is that parents will resort to other often dangerous means and measures and will push the problem elsewhere.
What should happen is that there should be the old fashioned School rota whereby perhaps only cars carrying a minimum of 3 children will be allowed to park in a designated drop off point for 2 minutes. I have seen parents acting as traffic marshalls in other areas who will assist the children in leaving and entering vehicles and walking them a few yards to School. This eliminates the need for cars to park for any length of time and will eliminate congestion coupled with dangerous and illegal driving and parking.
Following feedback at the Cazenove Ward Forum a local park and stride scheme was introduced whereby parents could park for 30 minutes in the Morrisons Stamford Hill and Sainsburys Stamford Hill.
Oldhill Street is a victim of it’s own success for what used to be a run down area is now a thriving local shopping destination. This coupled with Hackney Council charging extortionate fees for parking on the estates which was never a problem has made parking a nightmare during School rush hour.
A possible solution would be to ban cars from entering Oldhill Street via Lynmouth and Osbaldeston Road whilst still allowing Oldhill St to remain 2 way.
I will be speaking to local residents and businesses and await your comments
An estate parking permit is £37.45/year:
http://www.hackney.gov.uk/estate-parking-permits
The link does not give the prices. Do you have another one?
Many thanks
Yes it does – you need to click on ‘parking permits price list’. Then you will see:
Estate parking permit
All vehicles
Residents £37.45
Blue badge holders Free
£37.45 per year seems a reasonable fee to me.
I agree that for 1 car it is very reasonable. Paying anything seems to deter people from parking neat their homes.
The problem arises when some estate residents have more than 1 car. Often residents have grown up children who each own a car.
The council website says that estate parking permits are usually limited to one per household (www.hackney.gov.uk/estate-parking-permits-terms-and-conditions), so the maximum cost per household per year is £37.45. On-street parking isn’t controlled anywhere near Oldhill Street (www.hackney.gov.uk/parking-zones), meaning that second and subsequent cars can be parked on the streets for free.
Having said that, census data shows that Hackney is ranked 347th out of 348 local authorities in England and Wales for households with two or more cars or vans, and 64% of Hackney households don’t have a car at all.
Do you think that parking on estates should not be managed, i.e. should be open to anyone? Or that estate parking permits should be free at the point of use? Or that multiple estate permits should be issued to households regardless of available space on the estate?
Hackney is a densely populated borough within a densely populated city, and the last thing the council should be doing is encourage car ownership by making it cheaper to park multiple cars per family. If people want a car-based lifestyle they should go and live in Wales.
Also, Councillor Jacobson, are you aware of the planning rules that mean that any new housing development now has to be completely car free? This means that residents who buy such properties cannot get a permit to park anywhere at all, for love nor money. We can have a discussion about whether this policy is perhaps excessively punitive, but it seems ridiculously unfair if on the other hand you’re going to argue that people living on the older council estates should have the right to own and park multiple cars per family. Where is the equity in that?
Laura.Thanks for your input.
Estate parking is a separate issue which I am broadly in agreement.
Parking on the estates should not be a free for all but subject to space being available, residents should be allowed to park 2 or more cars bell find to different residents at the same address (e.g. grown up children or partners). The cost should not be more than the running costs of the scheme.
Nick. I agree with your comments and am fully aware of the planning policy regarding car free development.
Many estate residents and their children as trying to have a better life and often it involves having jobs where car ownership is essential. They are not a bunch of motorheads.
A possible solution is a large roll out of carpools NOT these car clubs which although are reasonable for say a 2 hour return trip, Charge crazy money unless you return the exact car to the same spot within a couple of hours.
I would like residents to come up win solutions to eliminate the School run.
How about some children only buses?
How much are the running costs of running the scheme? I’d be surprised if they were less than £37.45 per year per car, to cover both administration and enforcement.
I was going to say that as a councillor doubtless you know the cost, but as you described the charges as ‘extortionate’ without knowing what they actually were, maybe not.
I welcome this initiative from the school. As a long term resident on oldhill street I can confirm that the traffic and parking are absolutely appalling, I wish this scheme luck. Though the traffic problems are not just confined to school drop offs, they occur all throughout the day.
Also, this is a very longstanding problem, and not due to any ‘recent success’ of the street. Effectively the street remains a neglected part of hackney, were trafficwise ‘anything goes’ largely as a result of inconsistent application of the law. The persistent parking on double yellow lines effectively blocks the street, resulting in road rage.
Many of the streets problems, including those at drop off times, could be solved by making the street one way and enforcing parking regulations