Forum Topic

Bedford Park school street fines

I live in Grove Park but support (well, I did) the shops on Bedford Corner. Ealing’s professed (in the article) notification of households did not include me and certainly not all Chiswick resident drivers. So £80 of the £39,280 fines is from me for entering a new school street. Lesson learnt!   I won’t be back, promise. Ealing Education is very expensive. Why not a first time warning for Chiswick residents?

Liz Hagerty ● 2d9 Comments

Fine revenue is ring fenced for transport spending. Given the sums raised over the years Ealing should have the finest, smoothest and cleanest roads and pavements in London. Except they aren’t interested in anything but cycling infrastructure or painting patterns on closed off back roads.So the income isn’t helping secure key service. Most is wasted on vanity projects to please a very small minority pressure group.

Simon Hayes ● 55m

Have to agree with you on this one. The sign on Southfield Road if you approach from the north comes in the middle of a chicane where there are a number of higher priority things calling on the driver's attention. There is also only one sign on the opposite side of the road if you are turning left to enter the zone.Similarly the signs at the bottom of Queen Annes Grove would be easily missed by a driver more concerned with checking for vehicles coming from each direction along Bedford Road.The chances are that in both cases even if drivers do see the signs they will already have part executed the turn and therefore will be doing a u-turn which introduces a bit of extra risk.That said, these changes were well publicised - people living nearby did get notifications and they seem to have support from both schools. This is possibly because poor parent behaviour at drop off will be out of sight, out of mind.What I'd like to see when these sort of schemes are implemented is a cost of living impact assessment. There is no point in pretending that revenue harvesting isn't a major incentive for introducing them and that will help secure key services for us all. However, I think the notion that these fines fall most heavily on people who drive as part of their jobs, and are therefore not likely to be in higher income groups particularly delivery drivers, does mean that School Streets work like a regressive tax. When you are up to sums in the vicinity of £15mn - that does start to represent a meaningful social impact.

Mark Evans ● 1h

The positioning of the signs is often a problem in Ealing. Unlike some boroughs where signs are angled towards the carriageway of the road off which the restriction lies, Ealing ones tend to be straight on and close to the end of the road. Drivers may not see them until already turning in, particularly at busy times when there are plenty of other things to be watching out for or visibility is poor. It will always catch out those unfamiliar with the restrictions.It’s almost as if they want to get people driving down these roads. I wonder.

Simon Hayes ● 22h

I live in LBE and wasn't notified by the council even though I live quite near to both school streets. However, I was aware of what was happening due to the reporting on this site. Not that I would ever have need to drive through either of the zones during these times. I do sometimes walk past Orchard House school during the day and my impression is that most of the traffic is made up of delivery vans.

Anita Blake ● 1d

If the Council has raised so much and fined so many from these two new school streets, the restrictions can’t be that effective or therefore particularly safe. Both the Bedford Park signs seem to have different fiddly times on them suggesting it needs nearly an hour morning and afternoon for children to safely come and go, which seems excessive. As others have suggested, a few smiling volunteers with hi-vis jackets and some traffic cones would be more effective for the short times needed, or at least paint SCHOOL STREET on each end of the road to help draw attention to the scheme.

Peter Evans ● 1d

I’d like to believe school access restrictions really are amazing for teachers kids and parents (until we walked one of our kids to the school that’s under a new restriction in Bedford Park), but if Ealing are so confident of the principle they need to prove it against the business case they use to invest our council tax to introduce them. If the only benefit turns out to be they raise more money than they cost, then they need to say so.

Simon Montague ● 1d

(oh, also do consider asking for the fine to be cancelled, they might say no as it's a road sign and there's no exucse for ignoring it, but they do sometimes cancel the fine  for first time offences)

Paul James ● 1d

You can go back though, just don't drive past the no motor vehicles signs during the times shown below the sign.You CAN drive past teh signs when the school is out.School streets really are amazing for the kids teachers and parents, slightly less so for drivers wanting to drive down the street, but you've got to concede the street feels much safer for kids when entering and leaving the school.https://www.orchardhs.org.uk/term-dates/

Paul James ● 1d

Presumably because Grove Park is in LB Hounslow and not LB Ealing.

Stewart Jones ● 2d