So it’s back to school.
And back to chaos at the gates.
Quicker than the scuffs have appeared on new shoes, traffic trouble has returned to Angus primary schools as stressed out mums, dad and assorted other picker-uppers clamour to be as close to the doors as possible for when the cherubs pile forth.
This is no new problem, nor one likely to disappear into the distance.
It is also not unique to any particular school, town, or indeed area across the whole of the country, but it has prompted one Forfar head teacher to take the step of shutting the gates around arrival and home time.
Whitehills primary’s Coureen Peters said the situation at her school was becoming so bad she felt children were at “great risk”, having to contend with hazards including double parking, clogged up drop-off areas and impatient drivers reversing round the car park to make good their getaway.
Whitehills was one of the new build primaries under the Forfar schools improvement strategy and although that was a few years ago now, I recall being impressed by the parking and drop-off arrangements created there in comparison to many other schools in Angus.
Admittedly, one of the school’s shortcomings for car-borne pupils is its corner position on the only road which leads past the primary.
Ms Peters has recognised that in the decision to have a trial period of closing the gates for half an hour in the morning and afternoon by asking parents in a letter – do they still send them home in schoolbags? – to be “mindful of the local community, take care not to park across drives or reverse into oncoming traffic”.
Of course, virtually every parent would take their hands off the wheel and hold them up in horror at the suggestion they are part of the problem.
We’re all, after all, faultless, considerate and law-abiding drivers. Aren’t we?
A visit to the Whitehills gate to see the scale of the problem would suggest otherwise, with cars committing the sins which the head has highlighted in her reasoning for the clampdown.
One motor was so strangely parked it looked like the handbrake might have been left off, causing it to run over the pavement and come to a halt near the gate.
It’s a scene repeated all over Angus which suggests education is still required outside the classroom as much as in.
