Dulwich private school slammed for selling £5K parking space

By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporter

Residents plagued by school-run traffic have lashed out at a private college after it sold the headteacher’s parking space to parents for £5,000.

People living near Dulwich Prep London school, in Alleyn Road, Dulwich, say the stunt at a charity auction shows the school isn’t serious about reducing tailbacks caused by parents taking and collecting their kids from school.

The school, which charges up to £7,300 per term, reportedly offered use of the parking space in Alleyn Park in West Dulwich for one year at a charity ball on June 18.

Local residents, who say they have put up with bottleneck traffic from parents’ cars for years, blasted the move as “disappointing.”

They say many kids at the school live outside the area and can’t walk or cycle to school and instead have to rely on their parents collecting them.

Come home time, the streets around Dulwich are brought to a standstill by parents collecting their kids in cars.

Claire McDonald, from Sustainable School Run, which encourages parents not to drive their kids to school where possible, said schools like Dulwich Prep needed to take responsibility for the traffic problems in the area.

She said: “We are drowning in traffic. The ULEZ has meant nitrogen dioxide has reduced by 22 per cent in London, but this area hasn’t benefited at all.

“We’re really suffering and we know the cause, the visual evidence is clear.

“In non-catchment school term-time there is a massive rise in traffic locally – we’re gridlocked. When those schools break up, but catchment schools are still in, the roads are clear. We also have data from Transport for London that illustrates the same thing. We need something to be done.

“We feel it’s completely inappropriate to be making us and our children suffer the impact of their business model, which relies on pupils coming in from further away to increase their customer base.”

The South London Press has approached Dulwich Prep School for comment.

Pictured top: Dulwich Prep London (Picture: Google Street View)