Seemingly trivial things that annoy you

briantrumpet

Pross said:

Planning committee this morning for a new primary school. In keeping with the policy of the applicant (who is also the planning authority) it has been designed with no parking / drop off facilities for parents to encourage walking / cycling. The proposals include excellent facilities for safe walking and cycling with parking restrictions being placed within 400m if the school..

Officer recommendation for approval but after the boomers on the committee spent hours talking about it, openly dismissing their own policies and officer recommendation, and saying how it is essential to allow parents to be able to drive their kids to school they eventually voted to defer a decision until parent parking can be provided.

Absolute fuckwits. The school site isn't ideal but that is because 70% of recent residential development in the area was rejected by the planning committee and got approved at appeal which has resulted in piecemeal development with no co-ordinated master plan. Now the kids from those homes will have to be found places in existing schools.

When I raised the matter of the car-nage (sorry) caused by parents driving up to the gates of the local school, even suggesting practical solutions of walking buses from the rugby club car park nearby, I was rounded on by parents insisting on their right to drive right up to the gates because they were oh-so-important and had planned their whole lives around being able to drive up to the gates of the two different schools their children were in before driving to work. And it's their own kids who breathe in the funes and are most likely to be injured in an accident.

rick_chasey

Not trivial tbh. Microcosm of the western world, but I feel your pain.

TheBigBean

Who lives that far from a primary that they have to drive?

rick_chasey

Whoosh.

rjsterry

Pross said:

Planning committee this morning for a new primary school. In keeping with the policy of the applicant (who is also the planning authority) it has been designed with no parking / drop off facilities for parents to encourage walking / cycling. The proposals include excellent facilities for safe walking and cycling with parking restrictions being placed within 400m if the school..

Officer recommendation for approval but after the boomers on the committee spent hours talking about it, openly dismissing their own policies and officer recommendation, and saying how it is essential to allow parents to be able to drive their kids to school they eventually voted to defer a decision until parent parking can be provided.

Absolute fuckwits. The school site isn't ideal but that is because 70% of recent residential development in the area was rejected by the planning committee and got approved at appeal which has resulted in piecemeal development with no co-ordinated master plan. Now the kids from those homes will have to be found places in existing schools.

A shame Gove has just been sacked. Getting him to reform the planning system would almost have been worth the last few years of nonsense.

rjsterry

TheBigBean said:

Who lives that far from a primary that they have to drive?

People outside Zone 2.

rick_chasey

What makes you thing Gove would?

This is the man who insisted on printing a bible with his own foreword for every primary school, only for sensible people to realise this stupid, though only after they were printed so they were all pulped.

Man is longer his own abilities than Johnson.

And what's his legacy as education secretary? a f*cking organisational mess, a headache for parents, overly stressed children, a remarkably dated curriculum (when it comes to the one topic I know anything about, anyway), and a system that is inappropriate for anyone who is either disabled or neurodiverse.

Fed up with this "Gove is good at his job" nonsense. His track record demonstrates the complete opposite.

orraloon

Govey is a smackhead, Govey is a smackhead, na na na na, na....

briantrumpet

orraloon said:

Govey is a smackhead, Govey is a smackhead, na na na na, na....

To be fair, Johnson didn't say that *some people* couldn't handle their drugs...

pblakeney

rick_chasey said:

...

Fed up with this "Gove is good at his job" nonsense. His track record demonstrates the complete opposite.

Is there some revisionist history going on?
At no point can I remember Gove being anything but a subject of ridicule.

briantrumpet

pblakeney said:

rick_chasey said:

...

Fed up with this "Gove is good at his job" nonsense. His track record demonstrates the complete opposite.

Is there some revisionist history going on?
At no point can I remember Gove being anything but a subject of ridicule.

It's probably what he was busy doing yesterday.

rick_chasey

Seems to be an idea going round he’s good at his job.

TheBigBean

rjsterry said:

TheBigBean said:

Who lives that far from a primary that they have to drive?

People outside Zone 2.

Sure. I could walk everywhere, but even as a kid in more rural areas, everyone had a local primary. Even where my parents live (very rural) it has a local primary school.

I'd be forgiving about the need for a sensible drop off area if some pupils lived a reasonable distance away and the school made no provision for buses.

pblakeney

rick_chasey said:

Seems to be an idea going round he’s good at his job.

Checks calendar. Nope, not 1st April.
🤣🤣🤣

pblakeney

TheBigBean said:

rjsterry said:

TheBigBean said:

Who lives that far from a primary that they have to drive?

People outside Zone 2.

Sure. I could walk everywhere, but even as a kid in more rural areas, everyone had a local primary. Even where my parents live (very rural) it has a local primary school.

I'd be forgiving about the need for a sensible drop off area if some pupils lived a reasonable distance away and the school made no provision for buses.

People drive to our primary school. Furthest house is 1/2 mile away.
Our neighbour works there. She is late 20s and drives. It is a 300m walk.

PS - I am really messed up when it comes to units. 🤣🤣🤣

TheBigBean

pblakeney said:

TheBigBean said:

rjsterry said:

TheBigBean said:

Who lives that far from a primary that they have to drive?

People outside Zone 2.

Sure. I could walk everywhere, but even as a kid in more rural areas, everyone had a local primary. Even where my parents live (very rural) it has a local primary school.

I'd be forgiving about the need for a sensible drop off area if some pupils lived a reasonable distance away and the school made no provision for buses.

People drive to our primary school. Furthest house is 1/2 mile away.
Our neighbour works there. She is late 20s and drives. It is a 300m walk.

PS - I am really messed up when it comes to units. 🤣🤣🤣

Those distances do not meet my definition of "reasonable distance"

pblakeney

TheBigBean said:

pblakeney said:

TheBigBean said:

rjsterry said:

TheBigBean said:

Who lives that far from a primary that they have to drive?

People outside Zone 2.

Sure. I could walk everywhere, but even as a kid in more rural areas, everyone had a local primary. Even where my parents live (very rural) it has a local primary school.

I'd be forgiving about the need for a sensible drop off area if some pupils lived a reasonable distance away and the school made no provision for buses.

People drive to our primary school. Furthest house is 1/2 mile away.
Our neighbour works there. She is late 20s and drives. It is a 300m walk.

PS - I am really messed up when it comes to units. 🤣🤣🤣

Those distances do not meet my definition of "reasonable distance"

Precisely.

Ben6899

pblakeney said:

She is late 20s and drives. It is a 300m walk.

PS - I am really messed up when it comes to units. 🤣🤣🤣

Huge problem in this country. No wonder everyone is overweight*.

Really needs addressing.

*before anyone has a go at me, I don't really care what anyone looks like. And have you been to a spa or swimming pool lately? Last few times (I do like a good spa day) I looked like a pro athlete in comparison to everyone else.

briantrumpet

If I were in government trying to encourage parents not to drive their children to school, I'd insist schools do a yearly survey of the distances people people have to travel to primary school, and how they get them there (collecting data on ages etc. I'd then be following up with carrot and stick approaches with the schools to get parents to change their habits for schools where parents driving under 1/2 mile is the norm.

If children can't walk or ride safely to their primary school, then they need to sort out the traffic safety issue, not excuse the use of cars for safety reasons.

pblakeney

Ben6899 said:

pblakeney said:

She is late 20s and drives. It is a 300m walk.

PS - I am really messed up when it comes to units. 🤣🤣🤣

Huge problem in this country. No wonder everyone is overweight*.

Really needs addressing.

*before anyone has a go at me, I don't really care what anyone looks like. And have you been to a spa or swimming pool lately? Last few times (I do like a good spa day) I looked like a pro athlete in comparison to everyone else.

Your assumption is 100% spot on regarding my neighbour.
Takeaways seven nights a week too. Her future is not bright.

Ben6899

pblakeney said:

Ben6899 said:

pblakeney said:

She is late 20s and drives. It is a 300m walk.

PS - I am really messed up when it comes to units. 🤣🤣🤣

Huge problem in this country. No wonder everyone is overweight*.

Really needs addressing.

*before anyone has a go at me, I don't really care what anyone looks like. And have you been to a spa or swimming pool lately? Last few times (I do like a good spa day) I looked like a pro athlete in comparison to everyone else.

Your assumption is 100% spot on regarding my neighbour.
Takeaways seven nights a week too. Her future is not bright.

It's rather sad.

shirley_basso

I am outside zone 2 and my 3 year old cycles to and from nursery every day. About 1k.

I do occasionally drive (once a fortnight, perhaps) as I then drive to meetings away from my primary place of work.

As for the takeaway every night - how the fark do people afford it!?

Ben6899

shirley_basso said:

As for the takeaway every night - how the fark do people afford it!?

On the never-never.

rjsterry

rick_chasey said:

What makes you thing Gove would?

This is the man who insisted on printing a bible with his own foreword for every primary school, only for sensible people to realise this stupid, though only after they were printed so they were all pulped.

Man is longer his own abilities than Johnson.

And what's his legacy as education secretary? a f*cking organisational mess, a headache for parents, overly stressed children, a remarkably dated curriculum (when it comes to the one topic I know anything about, anyway), and a system that is inappropriate for anyone who is either disabled or neurodiverse.

Fed up with this "Gove is good at his job" nonsense. His track record demonstrates the complete opposite.

I must have missed the headache. Nitwits fussing over SATs the school is literally telling them not to worry about seemed to sum up my experience. The curriculum was pretty recognisable from my education and where it differed was markedly better. PSHE for instance is utterly transformed from the embarrassed mumbling I had.

Phonics can get in bin as a way to teach spelling, though. Anyway, he does seem to have been useful in DCLG, notwithstanding the difficulties of serving under Johnson.

Munsford0

In the 60s I walked to primary school every day, rain or shine. Everyone did. As a family we never owned a car. Google maps tells me it was about a kilometer each way (and I'm mortified to find the school is now housing )

Secondary school was the same; 800m walk, 30mins on the service bus, another km walk at the other end to school. (Part of that is also now housing )

Student years more of the same; about 2km of walking with a brief snooze on a Mersey ferry in the middle.

pblakeney

shirley_basso said:

...

As for the takeaway every night - how the fark do people afford it!?

Speculating but they bought the house off inheritance.
Given the amount they must have spent* doing the place up and their lifestyle I guess chickens will come home to roost at some point.

*Hot tub installed at the start of 1st lockdown, new decking etc, etc. Used 3 times (that we know of) and currently in a state of disrepair as but one example.

mrb123

In a minor defence of Gove, he was hugely better for the legal profession when he took over from Failing Grayling as justice minister.

rjsterry

TheBigBean said:

rjsterry said:

TheBigBean said:

Who lives that far from a primary that they have to drive?

People outside Zone 2.

Sure. I could walk everywhere, but even as a kid in more rural areas, everyone had a local primary. Even where my parents live (very rural) it has a local primary school.

I'd be forgiving about the need for a sensible drop off area if some pupils lived a reasonable distance away and the school made no provision for buses.

Agree completely for anywhere remotely built up, but jeez, the whining about closing off the road immediately outside daughter's junior school. We have about 4 primary schools within a 1 mile radius.

Munsford0

pblakeney said:

People drive to our primary school. Furthest house is 1/2 mile away.
Our neighbour works there. She is late 20s and drives. It is a 300m walk.

Our neighbour works at a local primary. Maybe a kilometer away. She got a bike on the cycle to work scheme. Never seen her riding it. In fairness it's a heavy old Dutch town bike and we live up quite a steep hill, and I pass her walking there every morning.

TheBigBean

rjsterry said:

TheBigBean said:

rjsterry said:

TheBigBean said:

Who lives that far from a primary that they have to drive?

People outside Zone 2.

Sure. I could walk everywhere, but even as a kid in more rural areas, everyone had a local primary. Even where my parents live (very rural) it has a local primary school.

I'd be forgiving about the need for a sensible drop off area if some pupils lived a reasonable distance away and the school made no provision for buses.

Agree completely for anywhere remotely built up, but jeez, the whining about closing off the road immediately outside daughter's junior school. We have about 4 primary schools within a 1 mile radius.

So I think my original statement applies without your zone 2 qualifier.