Parking
For the safety of all of our children and families, at St. Joseph's, we want to encourage all of our parents and carers to be considerate when parking around our school site.
As a school, we have no jurisdiction to enforce parking laws or regulations.
If you wish to report a vehicle parked unsafely, please use the information below to direct your concerns to the appropriate authority.
Telephone: 01782 232091
Jf you are in any doubt about the importance of parking safely, please view the video below;
A message from Staffordshire Fire Service
Hi, my name is Jason, and I’ve been a Crew Manager at Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Fire Service for 18 years.
In my Fire service role, I have seen a lot of harrowing incidents that would send a shiver down your spine and make your toes curl. Most incidents that I attend are AVOIDABLE accidents, and they only occur due to the negligence or short-sightedness of individuals involved. The end outcome is usually damage to property or, more seriously, damage to life.
Recently, your child's school has sent communications encouraging parents to follow the highway code and not park on the double yellow lines outside the school. This is due to the dangers that it presents to YOUR children.
Crossing the main road is a hazard to all parents as they NEED a full unobstructed view of the roadway to SAFELY cross to the other side. The other danger that parking on Double Yellow lines poses is the reduced view of travelling motorists. They DO NOT have a full picture of the road and, more importantly, a full view of the pavement. If a child was to run out from behind an illegally parked vehicle, they do not have enough time to react and come to a stop.
The fire service wishes to support the school, ridding the school community of this reckless parking and will collaborate as much as possible with the school until we understand its dangers.
There are many stories I could share, but I will share one from an incident we attended several years ago. A young girl ran straight from the school gates and attempted to cross the road at speed. She was knocked over and ended up underneath a bus. The bus driver couldn’t see the girl approaching due to several poorly parked vehicles, so he didn’t have enough time to react prior to hitting the girl. Unfortunately, the girl lost her life, her parents lost their child, her class lost their friend. The bus driver had to live with this for the rest of his life, even though it wasn’t his fault. The Fire and Rescue and Paramedic crews also had to live with the extrication and attempted resuscitation of a young girl who had her whole life ahead of her. Let’s not forget the witnesses also have this etched into their brains for life. Unlike a Firefighter or a Paramedic, they are not trained for a traumatic event such as this. This was an accident, but it was avoidable. PLEASE support the school and park sensibly.