Mum who’s become the scourge of the school run
Families fume as her 4x4 blocks their cars in ... every morning!
for anyone who lives near a school, parents delivering and collecting their offspring in the car can become a torment.
But even if you’ve had to put up with this sort of twice- daily commotion, count yourself lucky you don’t live around Stenson fields Primary Community School.
for residents there have come to dread the morning and afternoon school runs thanks to one ‘selfish’ mother and her 4x4.
They say the white Land rover Discovery is parked inconsiderately twice a day for up to 45 minutes as close to the school as possible. However, police and the council have told them there is little they can do.
one resident has become so fed up that he took a series of photographs of the vehicle.
The driver was named last night as Izabela Szczepanska, 40, a Polish former childminder who has a son at the primary school
‘Everybody is really frustrated’
on the outskirts of Derby and lives a tenminute walk away.
Benjamin Broadhurst, 34, says the driver has been rude and claimed she can park wherever she likes, despite living nearby.
Mr Broadhurst, a property engineer and neighbourhood watch co- ordinator, said: ‘She’s endangering lives. for example, other vehicles have to swerve out around her. She has no regard for anybody other than herself. I’ve heard people try to talk to her but she just drives off.’
Jess Howe, 23, said: ‘others park like that too, but they leave quickly – she stays for 45 minutes. When you’re blocking someone’s drive, that’s really bad.’ Miss Howe, who has lived near the school all her life, said the driver had ‘ no respect’ and had parked outside her parents’ home, then her own and, after requests to move, was now parking outside her brother’s.
‘He couldn’t get off his drive recently and was late for work at his new job,’ Miss Howe added. ‘Everybody is really frustrated.’
one angry neighbour sarcastically wrote on facebook: ‘fantastic parking by the Chelsea tractor this morning on the school run. Not let- ting people past who need to go to work. Think before you park.’
Denise Underwood, another resident, said the problem parker churned up a grass verge on her property. The 57-year- old retired ambulance service technician, said: ‘We got so frustrated as she went over all of the work we had done [to the verge], and wrecked it.
‘She is an absolute menace. People with a push chair or pram have to go in the road to get past.’
Miss Szczepanska lives in a detached four-bedroom house half a mile from the school. She last night suggested that some pictures she had seen did not show her car, and said she and her mother walked to the school until last year.
‘No-one has told me or come to my house telling [ me] that I blocked someone. Just because my car is white and stands out does not mean I am at fault,’ she said.
Her partner, Kully Singh, 47, said she had probably parked erratically because ‘she used to be a child- minder with about 15 kids to drop off at different schools’.
‘It’s not because she wants to do it, it’s just that she’s in a rush,’ he added. ‘I’ve seen loads of cars parked like that, maybe it’s because her car stands out it’s more noticeable. I don’t know anything about [her blocking people’s drives].’
Mr Singh said his partner was ‘not really’ a bad parker, adding: ‘I’ll make sure she walks from now on. She can walk it to be honest.’
Jaspal Girn of Stenson fields school, said parking was an issue and the school would ‘have words’ with a motorist causing a problem.
A police spokesman said: ‘We are aware of the parking complaints. It is something we will continue to monitor.’ A South Derbyshire District Council spokesman said: ‘We would urge people to be considerate. We will continue to... try to alleviate any issues.’