What are your thoughts on this?

[ruudvandan]

BBC NEWS | UK | England | Manchester | Spy cameras target school parking

at first i just saw it as a money-makiing scheme, but when you think about how much it costs to buy the cars and mount the cameras on them then it's a lot of ?35 fines to pay for it, which will drop very quickly after it's been running for a few weeks and people realise they're getting caught.

But then, i thought if it turns out that it gets the fat kids to walk then it must surely be a good thing. i have seen how parents park near schools in my area at drop off/pick up time and I must admit it is very unsafe, they park anywhere and everywhere.

My only worry is that some poor family will have been parking there for a couple of weeks without realiising they're gonna get caught and then get flooded with 6-7 fines all at once that they can't afford to pay.

[manxspud]

for me its a catch 22... my daughter goes to a school less than 10min walk from were we live... only caters for around 200 pupils. for the most part its local kids who go there and not many cars are around, on top of that we have a pub not far from the school and the landlord lets people park there with no probs. my son goes to a bigger school with a larger catchment area, for us its not a problem, as its only 20 mins walk away, and he is old enough to go and come back with his friends. however if we lived 20min the other way... he would have to cross 2 very busy roads with no bus stops or proper crossings, then i would be there like every body else fighting for a parking space. i don't condone bad parking, or using a car for the school run when you can safely walk. but i understand it to a certain extent. i also think half the problems are caused by people been unorganized and leaving it a bit late, they rush to find a spot without thinking is it safe or not. in conclusion kids safety comes first in my mind, and parents been better organized i'm certain would help. please feel free to disagree if you don't agree.

[DJSimo]

BBC NEWS | UK | England | Manchester | Spy cameras target school parking

at first i just saw it as a money-makiing scheme, but when you think about how much it costs to buy the cars and mount the cameras on them then it's a lot of ?35 fines to pay for it, which will drop very quickly after it's been running for a few weeks and people realise they're getting caught.

But then, i thought if it turns out that it gets the fat kids to walk then it must surely be a good thing. i have seen how parents park near schools in my area at drop off/pick up time and I must admit it is very unsafe, they park anywhere and everywhere.

My only worry is that some poor family will have been parking there for a couple of weeks without realiising they're gonna get caught and then get flooded with 6-7 fines all at once that they can't afford to pay.

Well if they cant see a smart car with that huge camera mast on top, then they are obviously not paying attention to what is around them whilst driving, so they are dangerous anyway and deserve the fine.

What chance have they of spotting a child in the road if they don't even spot that car driving around!!!!

[chroma]

It would be fairly straightforward to circumvent this.

If i got a ticket then id simply snatch a friends, extended family members or really close neighbours kid. As horrificly a shitty act as this sounds.
This isnt to suggest that id do anything wrong past the abduction. Simply go grab a happy meal, go bowling or minigolfing or something equaly as public and monitored to kill a few hours.

Then return the kid to his/her parents after a few hours and heavily publicise the whole deal publicly stating how and why i did it.

"it was easy, the local authorities in their infinite wisdom have seen fit to make it more difficult to ensure their childrens safety, especialy as the nights are drawing in much more rapidly. Im certain my friend would rather it was me who safely borrowed his kid as a publicity stunt to highlight this issue, rather than someone else with far sinnister motives."

My ex wife recieved some very scary handwritten letters in the past from a complete nutter. I drove my kid to and from school for months knowing that the school was just around the corner, it was either that or needlessly scare the life out of her by telling her what was really going on then asking her to walk. Had i recieved a ticket from a local authority who told me they could do nothing about this person i would have been livid.

Heres an idea, why not actualy improve the parking situation? Theyve just built several new schools around here and none of them have been designed with adequate parking in mind.

[bvilleuk]

Heres an idea, why not actualy improve the parking situation? Theyve just built several new schools around here and none of them have been designed with adequate parking in mind.

The Car Park would be bigger than the school to accommodate all the HUGE 4 X 4's that appear at 3pm near us !!

I wonder why they need a tractor to take the little darlings to School??!!

The Family next door to me take and collect their 10 year old to school by car every day -- when the School is less than a quarter of a mile away...... Still, if you don't work, have two cars and the DWP pay your petrol..............
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