Last week on my local councillor Facebook Page @TilgateFurnaceGreen, I wrote about the problem of parking on the yellow zig-zag lines outside a local school and I posted some photographs of offending cars. While I knew this was an issue, the scale of the reaction showed that there are strong feelings about this issue across the whole town. My post was shared multiple times and was viewed by over 11,000 readers.
The overwhelming response was one of annoyance, agreeing with me that there can be no excuse for anyone putting their own convenience above the safety of everyone else’s children. This is a problem across the town caused by a minority of drivers and a behaviour that we shouldn’t be accepting of.
Yellow zig-zag lines are outside schools for a reason. It is obvious that the closer to school gates you get, the more children will be crossing the road at the busy opening and closing times, and that any parked vehicles makes it harder and less safe for children, including restricting the view of passing vehicles.
And yet there are a host of ‘self-justifications’ out there for those who persist in doing this. These include “I’m late for work” or “I need to take a child to another school” as well as “there is nowhere else to park” or “everyone else does it too”. There are of course no excuses and those attitudes need to change.
Last year West Sussex County Council brought in a town-wide Traffic Regulation Order to give legal enforcement to all the yellow zig-zag lines outside Crawley schools. This means that parking tickets can be issued and I have requested a step-up in patrols at school opening and closing times, although clearly Crawley Borough Council’s Traffic Wardens can’t be outside every school at the same time.
I believe that issuing parking tickets to persistent offenders as well as a bit of shaming on social media is a good way to challenge and help stop this behaviour, but ultimately parking on yellow zig-zag lines outside schools needs to become socially unacceptable for it to stop completely.
Councillor Duncan Crow, Leader of Crawley Borough Conservative Group
21st March 2018