‘There needs to be some discretion’: Parents fined while picking up their kids at a western suburbs high school

One parent was slapped with fines totalling more than $200 while picking up his daughter from a western suburbs public school.

A father is pleading for greater transparency after he received two $113 fines within minutes of each other while picking his daughter up from her western suburbs high school.

Graham, whose 16-year-old daughter attends Brighton Secondary School, is looking for answers from Holdfast Bay Council after he was fined while queuing in his car among other parents at pick up time on Ilfracombe Ave.

His expiation notices are among 75 issued for traffic offences by the council on Ilfracombe Ave since the start of the year.

But the council said it has given ample warning and that queuing cars block the road.

Pick up time is made difficult, Graham, 53, said, when students leave parked cars in the pick up zone when they have to stay back after school.

A sign on Ilfracombe Ave does not permit parking at school drop off time (between 8.30am and 9.30am) and pick up time (3pm and 4pm).

A parent picking up his daughter from Brighton Secondary School was fined twice in minutes. Picture: Brenton Edwards

But a car was parked in the pick up bay the day he was fined, Graham said.

“It just so happened that a … vehicle with the CCTV cameras on the car drove past and claimed we stopped on a solid yellow line, even though we were in the back of a queue,” Graham said.

“The council vehicle did a U-turn, drove past in the opposite direction and gave me a second ticket … two minutes apart.”

But Graham did not realise he had been fined until he received the notices weeks later in the mail.

The parent challenged both of the expiation notices but only one was withdrawn.

“There needs to be some discretion,” he said.

“Parents are wanting to pick up their children, they’re on tight time frames and there’s things they need to do.”

Graham said while he understands council needs to uphold rules, “they also need to make reasonable allowances”.

He said he now picks up his daughter from local side streets or asks her to wait at school for 10 minutes to allow traffic to clear.

A Holdfast Bay Council spokeswoman said vehicles waiting on Ilfracombe Ave “can inhibit other traffic from using the road” which is why the yellow line prohibiting stopping is in place.

She said council safety officers patrol the area on foot “for a few weeks” at the start of the year “to speak to parents waiting in cars and/or issue warnings”.

She said the council has also “on occasion” deployed warning messages regarding parking regulations on a digital sign.

The spokeswoman said the council recommended that vehicles perform a “loop” around neighbouring streets until a space becomes available in the pick-up bay.

Brighton Secondary School did not respond when approached by The Advertiser for comment.

It comes after drivers in the Holdfast Bay Council area said CCTV footage is resulting in drivers getting slapped with fines for unavoidable or innocuous road acts.

Adelaide Rideshare Group representative Neil de Souza told The Advertiser drivers were being fined for stopping for mere seconds.

He said he was unaware of anywhere else in SA – or even Australia – where cameras were targeting drop off and pick ups and the constant fines prompted the group to meet with the council to push for solutions.

The City of Holdfast Bay confirmed cameras operated on Jetty Rd and were used to monitor parking infringements.

A City of Holdfast Bay spokeswoman said it had been working with rideshare drivers to address their issues and was “looking at creating more spaces for all types of drop offs” but said appropriate drop-off areas were available.