Richmond to charge for school-run
Parents in Richmond could be paying up to £75 to drive to school.
A controversial scheme that charges parents who drive their children to school could be adopted by local authorities across the UK. Richmond Council in Surrey plans to charge parents up to £75 a year for using their car on the school run. The council says it wants to cut CO2 emissions, but the AA and a group representing parents calls it unfair. The Local Government Association says other councils battling car congestion will watch the scheme “with interest”.
From September, Lib Dem-controlled Richmond wants to charge parents up to £75 for a 15-minute parking permit allowing them to park in bays near their child’s school.
24 April 2008 | Category » news
Comments
I did notice the charges do not apply to Orleans Infants or Orleans Park, but might apply to spaces near St Mary’s (not clear if Infants only or Junior as well). This article in the Richmond and Twickenham Times gives more details.
Trevor at 24 April 2008 2:04 PM
What about the child who has to be picked up from school to keep a hospital appointment, or has an accident and needs to be collected and taken to
A & E? My husband helped out this way once whilst his mother came home immediately from visiting a elderly grandmother. Although getting more parents to walk their children to school is a good idea this plan seems to be another money making scheme to me.
M & R at 24 April 2008 4:15 PM
The scheme, as I understand it, would only apply for periods around school start and finish times and at other times normal provisions would apply. It has yet to be adopted and given these sort of issues, if there is a real problem, a voucher scheme might be better.
Trevor at 25 April 2008 1:38 PM
How would this work with the residents parking permit?
Instead of a big stick, why not encourage children and parents to use the excellent ‘walking bus’? Extra funding to promote the system and funding for rewards for children who use it?
a mum at 2 May 2008 4:42 PM
My wife almost always walks the children to school, but 1 afternoon a week (due to after-school activities) and occasionally (eg. if it is bucketing down with rain) takes the car.
There used to be an informal arrangement where the Traffic Wardens allowed parking on nearby streets for a short period of time, a school badge had to be displayed in the windscreen. This year that was formalised in to a free permit system, the permits being similar in appearance to resident’s parking permits. I guess charging for them was then only a matter of time.
I appreciate that, for those who insist on driving every time, this might seem like “good value”. But for us, £75 for 15 minutes parking, lets say on average twice a week, for 40 school weeks per year, it’s going to work out around £1 per 15 minutes. To justify the cost, we will probably then drive more often, not less!
There needs to be should be something in-between…
The councillor for traffic etc. should appreciate that he was elected to serve us - we and many others are looking forward to the 2010 local elections, when his performance will next be assesed at the ballot box!
Ed at 22 May 2008 3:44 PM