General Discussion
Westcliff School Parking Hazard
"Apparently I am allowed to park anywhere"
You know who you are. Please have some consideration for the safety of our Children. We all know there is no parking on the Zig Zags during drop off and collection of our Children.
Why do we have to endanger our Children of injury or death because they have no view of the entrance to their school
When my daughter was at primary school (not in Dawlish) it wasn't unusual to have certain parents decide that the pavement was in fact the highway and drive along it as far as they could in order that their little darlings could get as near as possible to the school gate. Needless to say there was a near miss or two.
at 3.20 yesterday outside Westcliff it was horrendous, parking on zig zags taxis parked out in road how there wasnt an accident god only knows double parking all along the lower stretch of the road causing obstructions to the junction of 1st Avenue and Oak Hill .
@Carer as ive been told on several occasions " i do work you know" and i would be late if i didnt drive them to school. the problem has got worse since the school bus was withdrawn
Nothing is going to change unless the school gives up some land to create an off road pull in on Westcliff Road side similar to Gatehouse and Dawlish Community College, only then it will be safe for taxis to park and pick up. I bet the school have like many increased their staff without any additional onsite parking spaces being added, so those who have to drive to work are adding to the congestion due to parking close to the school.
I wonder if the zig zags are enforcable the last time i looked there was no road order for Gatehouse DCC and Westcliff they where advisory only it may be worth while checking and if the road order has been changed then pressure can be put on Devon County to enforce them.
Some people were ticketed back a while ago on one of the PCSO and TEO really rare visits.DCC also put a yellow sign no stopping
The PCSO,s no longer have traffic powers they have been removed by the Chief Constable to save money, parking on Zig Zags carries 3 penalty points and a fine CEO,S dont have powers to issue parking fines that include penalty points only a sworn Police Officer can. Now the old Police Traffic Wardens had a full range of traffic powers and dealt with everything from parking on double yellows to non fatal accidents and in Dawlish we had 2 full time and 1 part time officer and they were busy, these days we are lucky if you see a CEO for 6 hrs per week there is no enforcement because its not profitable for DCC to employ more CEO,S.
Most motorists belive that huge amounts of money are made from issuing parking tickets in truth it's very expensive we have the cost of the CEO a vehicle to run around in the staff at county hall to deal with the tickets uniforms the cost of collecting information on vehicle owners from DVLA and in some cases court costs. My solution would be to automate the issuing of penalties by having cameras outside Schools that automaticaly issue fines for parking illegaly they do at Schools in other parts of the country why not here. My final word lines and sign,s mean nothing unless they are backed up with a road order lots of road orders in Dawlish dont match sign,s and lots of sign,s dont match road orders its always worth checking if you get a parking ticket.
Years ago I was at a meeting in which a DCC highways chap said to those complaining about parking along Westcliff that it acts as a traffic calming measure in itself. It forces traffic to go slower!
My youngest went to Gatehouse and left 11 ish years ago, it was a nightmare then, especially if it was wet as those that would walk or park further away couldn't possibly get wet. Many times the road was gridlocked, was often tempted to direct the traffic myself but would have been incredibly rude to the ignorant motorists present.