PARENTS and residents are clashing on a Poole street over cars blocking driveways at school drop-off times.

The two-hour parking bays on Jolliffe Road in Poole currently extend over the driveways along both sides of the road.

Although the Highway Code says drivers cannot block a driveway or a dropped kerb, the unbroken road markings have created conflict and confusion when parents drop off for nearby Longfleet Combined School on Jolliffe Avenue.

Last week the police were called after a dispute broke out between a driver and a resident. A spokesman for Dorset Police said the officer gave words of advice to both parties.

She added: “This is an ongoing situation which has been referred to the traffic panel at Poole council. They will attend and monitor the situation. The local Safer Neighbourhood Team is also aware of the parking concerns in the road and will continue to monitor this, especially during school drop-off and pick-up times.”

Langathani Picano says she was threatened with a ticket by a police officer when she parked there to drop off her five-year-old grandson.

She told the Echo parents would park over driveways – but would often stay in the car to move it if a resident needed to come in or out.

“The police said you can’t park there – but it’s a council parking area. It’s not fair really,” she added.

Steve Tite, traffic manager, Borough of Poole, said they were aware of the problem and in discussions with the police, “formalised marked bays in areas where access to properties are situated close together would in practice severely limit parking spaces available as the bays would need to be of a prescribed minimum length”.

He added: “When the scheme was first developed, residents originally requested the council maximise the amount of parking space available and continuous bays were marked on the road to allow this. While the bays stretch across driveways, there is still a responsibility to drivers using these bays to recognise access points to properties and to not obstruct driveways or dropped kerbs.” The issue will be discussed at the next traffic panel meeting on April 17.

The law says...

ACCORDING to rule 243 of Highway Code it is an offence to cause unnecessary obstruction – for which police may issue a fixed-penalty ticket.

Parking in from of someone’s driveway is contrary to the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986, section 42 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 and Schedule 2 to the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988.

Serious issue is acknowledged by both sides of the argument

WHEN the Daily Echo visited the area for the afternoon school pick-up, we witnessed first hand the problems facing residents and parents.

Exasperated Jolliffe Road resident David Wright, told us: “You cannot get anywhere near your house around school time.

“We have people parking right across the driveway. I’ve seen lots of problems with people being blocked in.”

Meanwhile, parent Paul Russell, who was parked up waiting for his daughter to finish school, said: “I tend not to leave the car, so if anyone asks me to move I’m able to. There is nowhere to park here. The parking is abysmal. I do sympathise with residents.”

Grandmother Yvonne Coker, who was picking up her grandchild from Longfleet Combined School, said: “I always try to get here early, but you find problems arise with the people arriving late. They park anywhere. I’ve overheard parents saying they’ve had to park on someone’s drive, or over someone’s driveway.”

Resident Tracy O’Brien, whose husband has contacted the council in a bid to get the problem sorted out, told the Echo: “One of the problems is the bays are so large. Even if no-one is directly blocking your access, the proximity of the parked cars makes it very hard to get in and out of your driveway.”

Another resident, who asked not to be named, said if the parking bays were laid out better the problem could be significantly eased.

Sounding a note of caution, she added: “The mums and dads park all over the place. It can be very annoying for residents.

“But worse than that is what could happen. All you need is to have a small child walk out from behind one of these cars which regularly park on double yellows and we could have a tragedy.”