People dropping their children at Leigh Beck School, off Point Road, Canvey, normally use the car park outside the Admiral Jellicoe pub, in High Street, Canvey, in the mornings.And who could possibly object to th...
However, signs were recently put up warning drivers who park there, but do not use the pub, will be clamped.
The pub has also put up notices saying parking permits, which cost £1 a day, can be bought from staff.
Money for the permits will be refunded if drivers buy a drink.
Oh. Right.
Oh, Mr Lester...Kim Axford, 43, has been parking there to drop her children off for years.And is OUTRAGED! at the selfishness of this publican who thinks he can do what he likes with his own property:
She said: “Lots of people park there and it’s not as though you are leaving a car all day. You’re dropping off in the morning when the pub isn’t even open.Well, we'll let Mr Lester tell you, shall we?
“I just think it’s pathetic. There isn’t anywhere else to park, as outside the school it is double yellow lines.
“The pub is never that busy anyway. At the end of the day it’s about community spirit and what does it hurt them letting us park?”
Mark Lester, manager at the Jellicoe, explained he introduced the charges to raise money to carry out necessary repairs to the parking surface.
He said: “We’re just asking people to donate something.
“Sometimes when we get a delivery there’s cars parked in the way and the lorries can’t pull in. It costs us money then too.
“I wouldn’t park on your drive, so why would you park in my car park?
“A pound a day is all we’re asking and you can go off and come back and stay the whole day on the one ticket. If these people all chipped in a little bit to help us out it would be great.”
You are expecting common courtesy from people who have none.
And you'd be better off expecting respect for your property from a rabid wolverine than from School Run Mum. Like one of the commenters, several of my work colleagues who have the misfortune to live near a school have indeed had them parking on their drives, and when challenged, using the 'Well, I'm only going to be here a minute!' as if that made all the difference...
The comments are joy.
ReplyDeleteThe school run is sometimes unavoidable. I remember having to do it myself. The school I wanted my kids to go to was preferable to the one in my catchment area.
ReplyDeleteLocal governments should try to find another solution. Perhaps (where space permits), they should do what the Americans commonly do. They have a system of driving in one way, dropping off and then toodling on their way. You could even do it on school grounds. Many of them have car parks.
Thanks to the "nanny state" we now allow convicted paedophiles to roam around freely and constantly lecture parents about being "negligent". How do they expect parents to react?
If as the mum says they're dropping off when the pub is closed, a little bit of give and take doesn't hurt anyone. We are becoming an intolerant people.
I say good on Mr Lester ..
ReplyDeleteI certainly don't consider him to be intolerant, why should people expect to park on his premises for free ?
And where else can one park all day for just £1.00 ? .. In most car parks (including hospital car parks) that would only buy you an hour ..
The intolerant people are the ones who expect everyone else to bend over backwards to accommodate their needs ..
"At the end of the day it’s about community spirit"
ReplyDelete1) At the end of the day it's night
2) Community spirit, whatever that is, goes both ways. You see someone else's property, you don't park there. Open or not, it's their tarmac.
3) School runs are a bastard event and cause chaos. The number of caring parents who park in hopeless places and let their kids open the cars door on their own and get out into the road rather than the pavement side are beyond belief.
Thanks to the "nanny state" we now allow convicted paedophiles to roam around freely
ReplyDeleteOh, look, I know I keep on about this but, this is nonsense. Never have convicted sex offenders been more tightly controlled, in all our history. Let me tell a story.
At my mother's funeral, her childhood best friend Mary told an anecdote. They were in an "idyllic" Northamptonshire village, during the war years. My mother was born in '34, so she was under 10 when this happened.
Well, Mum and Mary, like all kids in them days, spent much of their time out of the house and away from parents, playing in the fields and woods and things, you know. And one day, the strange man from the village appeared, and flashed at them.
Mary mentioned it to her granny some years later (she was in the village as an evacuee living with her gradnparents) and granny was shocked, and said, "why didn't you tell us?" and Mary replied, "it was just funny, we laughed at him and didn't think anything more of it". And, some time later said gentleman was caught stealing ladies' underwear from washing lines, and convicted of that and various other pervy offences taken into consideration, you know.
Now, what do you think happened then? Do you think he went on a sex offenders register, and had shell-suited mobs attaacking his home? No. He served his time, and left prison. Like, always happens. You do your time, you are released. And with a reputation as a dirty old man, which he'd always had anyway.
What has changed is perceptions. Thanks to a bizarre coalition of deranged religious maniacs and deranged radical feminists, a phenomenon which has always existed- dirty old men- has been turned into an international moral panic. The perception has been created that it is a new phenomenon and spiralling out of control, that there is a "paedo" on every street, that all our children are at enormous risks from these supposed organised rings of kiddie fiddlers. And then, despite the State now havign special registers and special laws just to control this one class of offenders (where is the Burglar Register, or the Violent Bastard Register, eh?) people are in such a state of constant excessive panic that they still think the State is going easy on said Dirty Old Men, and said panicked parents are ruining their childrens' childhoods by denying them the freedom to explore and play.
We have always had a legal system where you serve a sentence and then are released. That's how the Common Law works. Convicted paedophiles have never ben less able to "roam around freely" than now.
@IanB
ReplyDeleteThe Penn & Teller episode of 'Bullsh*t' debunking the so called 'Stranger Danger' is an eye opener.
I secon Ian in principle and I deplore the treatment of children as "Royal Prisoners" but I have a tale to tell.
ReplyDeleteA flatmate of mine was once flashed and she reported it to the police along with a good description. The cops are very interested and scrobble him not long after (they'd had similar reports from the exact same spot). Turns out he's wanted for a couple of actual physical sexual assaults when they yank him in. Helen's tip helped a lot in that.
Oh, look, I know I keep on about this but, this is nonsense. Never have convicted sex offenders been more tightly controlled, in all our history.
ReplyDeleteMaybe so, but the difference is, as well as our own we seem to be importing them from all over. So there's more.
Coming back at you Ian B!
ReplyDeleteThe Great British Public might be daft enough to elect Cameron, but they're not daft enough to buy what you're selling.
Just as long as we have a justice system that's more concerned about mythical lynch mobs and the umanrites of those who have renounced all norms of civilised conduct, parents are quite right to stay alert.
"parents are quite right to stay alert."
ReplyDeleteOf course they are but there's a world of difference between 'alert' and hysterical.
"You are expecting common courtesy from people who have none."
ReplyDeleteNail, head, BANG!
"The comments are joy."
ReplyDeleteAlways! :)
"The school run is sometimes unavoidable. "
Oh, indeed. But parking illegally isn't. It would never, ever cross my mind to do this.
And she's not the 'giving' type, trust me - people like this are all 'take'.
" The number of caring parents who park in hopeless places and let their kids open the cars door on their own and get out into the road rather than the pavement side are beyond belief."
Our local school has had to call the police and community support officers in a few times to try to resolve the chaos.
No-one in their right mind would want to live close to it.
"Never have convicted sex offenders been more tightly controlled, in all our history."
Well, maybe - but there are still some that slip through the cracks (in any system, there always will be), and the very nature of these crimes allows the tabloids to go to town, doesn't it?
"Turns out he's wanted for a couple of actual physical sexual assaults when they yank him in. "
ReplyDelete'Flashing' is often a gateway crime to further offences if not caught and dealt with - the offender learns he can get away with it.
"Just as long as we have a justice system that's more concerned about mythical lynch mobs and the umanrites of those who have renounced all norms of civilised conduct, parents are quite right to stay alert."
Note the number of cases in the papers of hostels for sex offenders located near schools and nurseries that need to be campaigned against; the authorities' reactions veering from 'Is there? Oh, we didn't notice!' to 'It's their right to live somewhere!'...
Hang on, am I missing something here? If you drive to the pub you expect to park at the pub, just like you expect to park at the supermarket or the cinema. So if these people are driving to the school why aren't they on at the school to provide a car park, or at least a pick up/drop off point? This seems like marching into the newsagents and asking why the hell he doesn't provide tables outside the cafe.
ReplyDelete@SBC, yes, that episode of Bullshit! was the one with the kid on the NYC subway on his own, wasn't it? Very thought provoking.
My wife owns a pub which has a large car park, the other morning it was full over 20 cars in it. problem was the pub was shut so not one single one was a customer, she has been threatened verbally abused when she ask people to move it has 3 very large signs up, but thye still think they have a right to park there. People are ignorant and think they can get away with what ever they want.
ReplyDelete"@SBC, yes, that episode of Bullshit! was the one with the kid on the NYC subway on his own, wasn't it? "
ReplyDeleteYep t'was. I especially found that mother whose daughter was really raped and murdered by a stranger yet who still refused to pander to the paedo-hysteria an inspiration to all us parents.