Jam relief at hand- Evelyn MP Christine Fyffe with Mount Evelyn parent Fiona Williams discuss

By Tania Martin
ANGRY and frustrated parents who are being booked while waiting to pick up their children from school may soon see an end to their 10-year plight.
Yarra Ranges Council CEO Glenn Patterson visited the school with councillor Tim Heenan on Thursday to see what measures could be taken to relieve the pick-up car jam problem.
The problems with parking at Birmingham Primary School were brought up in Parliament by Evelyn MP Christine Fyffe last week after parents claimed they were booked for illegal parking while they sat in their cars.
In one case parent Fiona Williams said she was given a ticket for waiting in a line of traffic at the school.
The school in Francis Avenue, Mount Evelyn, has a drop-off and pick-up queue which allows parents to stop for about two minutes.
But on 24 February Ms Williams said she was sitting in line waiting to access the queue when she was given a ticket.
She said the parking inspector told her she was double parked when she says she was only waiting in a queue of traffic. She said her engine was still running.
“By that definition at traffic lights you are double parked,” Ms Williams said.
The Yarra Ranges Council did not respond to the claims by the time of going to press.
Several other parents were also booked for parking illegally in a no-standing zone at the far end of Francis Avenue.
At Birmingham Primary School there is a bottom and top parking area which parents say are not adequate.
They are calling for the bottom area adjacent to Francis Avenue to be sealed into a more formalised parking area.
It is currently a gravel area with no parking lines for spaces which can lead to half-car gaps during busy times.
Parents say the school’s parking queue area, which is used during drop-off and pick-up times, becomes jammed with traffic.
Ms Williams said most days parents waiting in line for the designated drop-off area have to manoeuvre to make way for cars pulling out of the top parking area.
She said this latest incident had sparked renewed calls for something to be done about the problem.
The school has been in ongoing negotiations with the Yarra Ranges Council for the past 18 months.
Billanook Ward councillor Tim Heenan met with the school late last year but nothing has been done since.
The council has allocated a proposed $148,000 in its 2010-11 capital works budget to help resolve the problem.
Ms Fyffe has also joined calls for action, urged the Education Minister to find the funds to help the school.
In Parliament last Tuesday, 9 March, Ms Fyffe said something needed to be done urgently to fix the problem.
She is calling on the State Government to provide cash under its Good Neighbours policy.
Ms Fyffe last week told the Mail that the lack of proper parking at the school meant there was nowhere safe to drop children off.
“One of the reasons parents don’t let their kids walk to school is the roads which are narrow and often made not safe for anyone let alone a child,” she said.
Cr Heenan visited the school last Thursday with shire CEO Glenn Patterson to assess the situation. He said the council was now looking into formalising the bottom gravel car park including sealing and line marking the area.
“We can now move forward with some of these things that should have happened a year ago,” Cr Heenan said.
“The underlying fact is that parents must always take great care with the movement of children.”
Cr Heenan said he was unsure of why it has taken so long to get to this stage.
He said the council was also continuing investigations into the parking inspector issue following parent complaints.
The Mail was unable to get a State Government response before going to print.