Parents who “block their driveways twice a day” while making the rounds to elementary schools have come under fire from irate cul-de-sac residents for being “rude and swearing.”
Residents in Netherton, Dudley, West Midlands, who live in a quiet neighborhood that is “used throughout the week to collect and drop-off kids, and at weekends for football teams,” have been left “sick and fatigued” by the traffic nightmare.
One elderly resident reported that last week’s massive number of cars that had piled up on the sidewalks on each side of the road prevented an ambulance from parking outside his home.
Northfield Road Primary School is nearby, and parents have been dropping off and picking up their kids there by utilizing Greaves Road in the town, which is located at the back of the school.
411 students, ages 4-11, are enrolled in the school, which Ofsted inspectors have assessed as “inadequate.”
Locals have also expressed their displeasure with the “verbal abuse” they endure when they ask the parents who have “taken over” their street to relocate their automobiles from in front of their residences.
Additionally, they assert that school employees leave their cars parked on the street all day.
As a 30-year resident of the street, Sue Willetts, 63, said, “I have had a number of people swear at me, which is simply not right.”
“It’s a problem when you can’t enter or exit your own driveway three times a day.” Parents and school personnel both park here.
George Mortimer, her companion, who is 66 years old, recalled: “The other day, after a woman got out of her car, I requested her to relocate.”
She claimed that I was picking on her because I couldn’t see that she was pregnant.
“I couldn’t get the ambulance outside my house the other week,” said 78-year-old Keith Whitehouse, who has lived on the road for 32 years. “That has happened two or three times previously.”
Mr. Whitehouse said that Sunday league football teams used the street as an unauthorized parking lot while they played games on the two fields in Netherton Park, leaving little relief for the neighborhood’s residents.
The Sunday morning footballers arrive and simply park anywhere they choose, and if you urge them not to park in the cul-de-sac, they respond with insults.
They simply say things like “so and so off” and such things that you don’t want to hear.
If you go up to them, there’s a dispute.
“What the f*** has it got to do with you?” asked one man to me.
You couldn’t get off because I said, “I live here, how about I come down by your house and park it by your drive?”
Residents are hoping that plans to erect a 25-space parking lot on adjoining property would be authorized.
The plans will be presented to the planning committee of Dudley Council in December.