Alleyn's coaches causing traffic problems YET AGAIN - and here's the photos you wanted

[Curmudgeon]

Parked outside the coach bays, on both sides of the road - this is blardy ridiculous.

Off to complain to council and school yet again

If anyone else is peeved, inconvenienced and endangered by these coaches please do complain too.

[Nicholas]

I know what you mean,plus they keep there engines running too.Very good for the environment.Not.

During the long summer break the roads were haven.

[Huguenot]

Probably being a bit daft, and clearly foreign so my view is worthless, but why does a school have coaches parked outside again?

[RosieH]

Am guessing it's transport to the school innit? (may be wrong, have based this on the fact that I used to get the coach to school).

[jim_the_chin]

I cycle past here and find it a bit dodgy at times with cars trying to squeeze through. I've noticed they have an emnpty strip of grass between the hockey pitches on the right as you head towards herne hill and the road. it wouldn't take much too cost and effort to build an access road that could hold around 4 or 5 coaches i reckon. zoom in under the 'A' on the map below.

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[GinaG3]

It is school traffic. I walk past a good 3 times a week. Sometimes from about 1pm there is around 7 coaches sitting outside waiting (school doesn't finish for hours still). Its not uncommon to go down there and see around 12 coaches parked up at 3ish. When they pull away they use the wrong side of the road as they drive towards lordship lane (this is to get around the pedestrian island just after Alleyns). There has been countless complaints about coaches taking up all the road. Can they not allow the coaches to pull into Alleyns instead? I do see a lot of people getting really peeved off at trying to drive down Townley Road at school times. My advice, try and travel a different route at these times!

[????]

It's a private school so get ready for a load of vitriolic, unpleasant envy ridden posts, 'their poor darlings' etc ...that's what heppened last time this was on here

[Narnia]

Let the kids cycle to school;-)

[Townleygreen]

With regard to jim the chin's comment:

I've noticed they have an emnpty strip of grass between the hockey pitches on the right as you head towards herne hill and the road. it wouldn't take much too cost and effort to build an access road that could hold around 4 or 5 coaches i reckon.

I believe that this strip of land is classed as Metropolitan Open Land and can't be built on or used as a car park etc. Planning laws don't allow.

[Huguenot]

If they are a profit making venture you'd have thought it was possible to make a case against the use of the public highway for trading purposes.

If the coaches are there early because there's nowhere else to put them, then they're also effectively using the road for commercial storage...

[Townleygreen]

Presumably Huguenot you are referring to the coach companies rather than the school in your comment?

[Huguenot]

Well the first would be the school I guess, and the second the coach company.

I don't know whether private schools have an exception on ensuring that the local infrastructure is fit for purpose?

It would be a fun case to pursue as a class action. Maybe you could get a local lawyer to do it pro bono, on the grounds that it would raise their profile locally, and they might have further more profitable ventures off the back of it chasing estate agency cars.

[huncamunca]

???? Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> It's a private school so get ready for a load of

> vitriolic, unpleasant envy ridden posts, 'their

> poor darlings' etc ...that's what heppened last

> time this was on here

Exactly. I see no reason why people who have paid for their childrens education should have to adhere to the same rule as any other school.If people really cared for their childs education, they would choose private education very time.The massed ranks of the downtrodden proletariat should take off their blinkers and SMELL THE ORGANIC FRESHLY GROUND COFFEE.

[dubluke]

surely it's better to speak to the coach company than the school...

[huncamunca]

You also realise that because these coaches are on a timetabled route, they likely dont pay full duty on their fuel.Nice to know we all effectively subsidise ( charitable status) private schools transport arrangements.

oh sorry. I broke the no bile rule.

[Huguenot]

Well I think you have to talk to whoever is responsible.

If the school is a profit making venture who make greater profit by providing transport for their customers, then they need to carry the cost of providing this service. As a profit making company they're not fundamentally different to a football club, and nobody would blink if we asked a club to provide appropriate facilities for their supporters buses.

If it's a state school then there's a greater obligation upon the general public to make accommodation, as we are effectively shareholders and would carry the expense of parking facilities as much as carry the expense of blocked roads. We'd have to think how our money was spent more wisely.

But if it's private, then it's a business. We probably shouldn't let emotional confusion over the word 'school' to muddle our thinking.

[Townleygreen]

No, Huguenot, the school is a CHARITY. That means it can't "make a profit", as you put it. The coaches will be run as a self-financing operation.

[Huguenot]

I'm not disagreeing with you Townleygreen. I hope my string of 'If's communicated that :)

Being a charity doesn't mean everyone has to agree with it, nor that everyone has to make sacrifices to support it, nor that it absolves them of social responsibility.

I'm just observing that if a local resident doesn't believe that the wants and needs of this particular charity override their wants and needs as a local resident, that they are quite within their rights to challenge it.

Greenpeace may be a charity, and so may the Church of Nimpty Nompty of the Latter Day Ego who pay the Def Rev $5m salary a year.

It's entirely reasonable that some residents don't feel that it gives either organisation the right to block their roads.

I'm not picking a fight with you, and if the balance of belief of local residents is that they're perfectly happy with current arrangements or not, then you should take the case up with them.

[Townleygreen]

No, I realise that being a charity doesn't mean people can't object to it. Or that it is in any way perfect! :-$

I'm not trying to pick a fight with you either, by the way - I was just trying to correct what I saw as a mistake in your post about the school making a profit - that was all.

[Zebedee Tring]

Without getting into any debate about the merits or otherwise of private education, I'd be grateful if someone from Alleyns could answer the following questions:

(1) Since your school has plenty of land, why can't you get, or indeed require, the coach companies to park off-road during the day?

(2) Again, why can't you get, or indeed require, the coach companies to stop their drivers leaving their engines running? It is no longer the 1950s and the automatic choke has been invented. Indeed, if I were running one of the companies, I would be worried about the effect that this polluting practice was having on my fuel bills, even if I didn't give a toss about the local inhabitants being poisoned by fumes.

[mlteenie]

I am irritated by the coaches blocking the roads too, but i suppose it is to stop the effing parents driving in from Kent or wherever in their gas-guzzlers and blocking the roads even more...

Anyway the older pupils block the streets with their little hatchbacks too.

[Earl Aelfheah]

Private School, public school, charity, or profitable private business - the same principle ought to apply... Show respect to local residents, don't block the highway and don't leave your engine running uneccessarily.

[Nicholas]

I'm reading some of these "interesting" comments. Yes, the coaches are annoying, and unfortunately it's not just during school times, as often the coaches are there mornings, early afternoons and evenings. We have to be careful because the kids have to go out on day trips. But what annoys me more is some of the coaches look like there on their last legs, and not to mention the amount of crap that comes out of their exhausts as they leave them running. For such a posh school, surely they can afford to hire some decent up-to-date coaches that don't pollute as much. We all know during term times, particularly around Dulwich, most of the schools have loads of coaches.

[DJKillaQueen]

The charity tag is meanigless anyway (and probably only for tax purposes). It costs 14K a year to send a kid to Alleyn's.

[Townleygreen]

Dear Zebedee,

as I've already explained, the open space at the school is zoned as "metropolitan open space" and the planners won't let it be turned into concrete. So your first suggestion won't be possible:

(1) Since your school has plenty of land, why can't you get, or indeed require, the coach companies to park off-road during the day?