School run FIGHT breaks out: Video captures ugly scenes as furious locals block their driveways with deck chairs to stop parents parking outside their homes
- Women have to be prised apart in cul-de-sac as tempers flared on school run
A row between locals and parents who block their driveways at school pick-up time turned ugly as two women started a street brawl.
The pair had to be prised apart by three men as tempers flared in the quiet cul-de-sac which becomes a war zone every day at 3pm.
One eye-witness said: ‘It’s not the first fight and it won’t be the last – it’s got worse since the kids went back to school.
‘I can see it from both sides, the parents want to pick their children up safely from school but the residents are fed up of being blocked in by inconsiderate parking.’
Police have set up patrols in Lon Derw, a quiet cul-de-sac in Bridgend, South Wales, where the fight broke out on Tuesday afternoon.
A number of men had to step in to split the group up amid a dispute, thought to be about parking in the street on the school run
One woman can be seen yelling at another after residents formed a roadblock out of deck chairs to deter parents from parking in the street
The disputed parking area in Lon Derw, a quiet cul-de-sac in Bridgend, South Wales, beside Brynmenyn Primary School (seen right)
The fight was eventually broken up – believed to have involved a local resident and another woman who does not live in the street
READ MORE: Police patrol quiet cul-de-sac that has become warzone at school pick-up time after fed-up locals set up human barricades to stop parents parking outside their homes
But mums and dads continue to flood into the area to pick up their children from the 200-pupil Brynmenyn Primary School, leaving cars on pavements and using private parking spaces as if they were their own.
The biggest trouble spot is right outside an old people’s home where the manager fears there will be a tragedy because emergency services can’t get through.
Trudy Davis, service manager at the home run by housing association Inc Cymru, said: ‘There are certain times of the day when we couldn’t get an ambulance to one of our residents if we needed to.
‘We have 45 elderly people living here – the eldest is 97 but for five days a week the home is blocked off twice a day during the school run.
‘Emergency services need to have access 24-hours a day – this is a serious concern.
‘We’ve put up signs but people don’t adhere to them – the police are very much on our side but the problem continues.’
Residents of the 19 houses in the cul-de-sac are struggling to get the law on their side because the small estate has no double yellow lines.
Parents on the school run park across the entrance of their driveways causing chaos and some double park while they nip to the school gates to collect their little ones.
Last year the livid homeowners blockaded the entrance to the estate by sitting in deck chairs on the road in protest at the daily influx of school-run parents.
Now locals have started a more subtle approach by taking photographs of offending cars and passing the details on to police reporting them for obstruction.
The school pick-up row was sparked after locals accused parents heading to the nearby primary of blocking their driveways
Fuming neighbours who live in a cul-de-sac just yards from Brynmenyn Primary School in South Wales have resorted to sitting across the road in garden chairs to block drivers
Police were previously called to Lon Derw, a housing estate opposite Brynmenyn Primary School in Bridgend, after receiving reports of a ‘verbal dispute’
READ MORE: Council installs CCTV cameras to catch out bad school-run parking and issue £70 fines as locals complain about ‘bone idle, disrespectful’ parents
Father-of-four Mal Harris, who lives close to the entrance of the cul-de-sac told Mail Online: ‘The deckchair protest worked – it brought a lot of attention to the problem and things calmed down.
‘But it’s got worse since the kids went back to school and I’ve asked the police to patrol the area, especially in the afternoon when parents arrive at the same time to collect their children.
‘Tempers have got frayed again and we are starting to get incidents like we’ve seen today.’
Bridgend Council tried to solve the problem by creating parking bays around the schools and issuing parking permits.
But locals say most of the parents didn’t qualify for a parking permit and continued to park outside their front doors.
Mr Harris, a bodyguard, said one solution would be to use a large car park outside the adjoining comprehensive school as a drop-off and pick-up spot.
He added: ‘That would be an easy way to resolve it but the council won’t do it.
‘People living here are frustrated at the high volume of traffic but parents coming here twice a day are only concerned about the safety of their children. There has to be an answer.’
One homeowner said the inconsiderate parking had caused them to consider moving in order to get away from the problem.
They said: ‘We have this constant feeling of being watched, and while we feel for parents as they have to park somewhere, there are also cases where there is a complete lack of respect – with people lining the streets, blocking cars in their drives, and generally parking however they want.’
Fed-up neighbours are battling against parents ‘parking inconsiderately’ and blocking driveways during the school run at Brynmenyn Primary School in Bridgend
Fed-up residents were seen last year as they barricaded their road
One homeowner said the inconsiderate parking had caused them to consider moving in order to get away from the issue
Bridgend Council said there are parking restrictions on the access road to the school to help with road safety.
A Bridgend County Borough Council (BCBC) spokesman said: ‘If any vehicle causes an obstruction by parking inconsiderately on a public highway, it should be reported to South Wales Police so officers can assess whether an obstruction has occurred.
‘Safety is paramount and there are parking restrictions on the access road to the school to assist with road safety and to facilitate access to residential properties in the area.
‘Civil parking enforcement officers, who are employed by BCBC, also patrol this area and enforce parking restrictions where appropriate.
‘We would like to remind parents/carers that alternative options are available including active travel routes which offer safe access to and from the school.’
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