Idea for Community Engagement / Education

[Lumie]

I was just looking for feedback on an idea I thought about, which has probably been mentioned before, but I'd like to know your ideas on if it could work or not...

So, tight roads and fire engines don't really mix well. Add poor parking from the occupiers into the equation and your outcome is a few missing wing mirrors, and crucially, more time spent responding to the incident. What I thought was a good idea is getting some fancy leaflets, with a photo of a few firefighters standing in front of an engine with their arms crossed thats quite obviously stuck between two poorly parked cars on a tight road. Have a big bold caption like "we could've been coming to your house on fire today". The leaflets would be filled with information, such as the legislation that says firefighters can damage your car when responding to emergencies and the like; and how the cars could be more suitably parked - potentially with a diagram showing how wide a fire engine is and how it's a bit silly to park opposite a T junction. 

Then, we take a fire engine down some of the streets of the local hot spots for bad parking and anywhere we get stuck or have to slow down, we hop out and put a leaflet under their window wiper. 

Just an idea

[LFB92]

I think this is already a thing mate. It was either on a documentary or a FB post that a station posted. For the life of me I cant remember which though!

[CaptainFlack]

GMFRS have a leaflet that looks exactly like the yellow PCN tickets that get stuck on windscreens by traffic wardens.

First glance and you start coming out with expletives until you get closer and read the information about inconsiderate parking.

Hopefully the driver understands the information and takes it on board 

[Becile]

We have leaflets like already in operation I'll try to post an example. Our station Twitter feeds also have videos from local watch commanders in actual locations where issues exist.

[Peter W]

I remember seeing an article last year in our local paper down here in Bournemouth about this issue.  The campaign was called “are we getting through”.  And around the same time they posted this video on the Dorset/Wiltshire facebook page demonstrating how awkward it can be with double parking on narrow streets.  I’m not sure if they distributed leaflets.

[Messyshaw]

The problem is, unless it is illegal to park in a location, people will park there regardless as if they keep their side of the road free, some other motorist will have it. I am not saying it is a bad thing to do to encourage the local community to think about these things, but a more effective way is to contact and canvas support from local councillors. 

We had a fairly significant B road around the corner from the station that we avoided during the day as access was so tight due to double parking. It was quicker to go around the long way as meeting a bus or truck would mean several minutes (perhaps 8 mins) added on the time of arrival. At night it was worse, as the alternative route was choice-a-block with cars. Even though the main B road would be quieter, 100s of trucks used it to service nearby 24/7365 industries 

I contacted local councillors and invited them to the station to watch some drills. We dressed two in BA and PPE and gave them a cuppa as they listened to a presentation. We provided them with an info pack with figures of how many shouts we used the B road and a break down of how mainly of this shouts were primary fires. We asked that pavement parking be allowed and offered to attend community meetings to sell the concept to the local people. At these meetings, the local punters grabbed this opportunity and gave anecdotal evidence of lost car mirrors and other damage. We gave them pre typed letters to send to the council to back the campaign.

It took six months but we got the pavement parking and a freer route to 36% of all our shouts and 43% of all our primary fires.

Ok, not a direct comparison to the OPs problems , but an idea that targeting a specific issue/location and involving the local community can pay dividends