Hi all,

thought I'd share this here as need a little rant. We have a really bad problem with parking in our road. The short version is that there is a walk way through to the station and people park here to go to the station. That I have no problem with. What really gets me is that they have no consideration for the residents. Most cars are parked from 7am to 7pm at night. They also park directly opposite a T junction. The council put double yellows on one side of the road, and all that achieved was to make people park on the other side.

Now, yesterday I needed to go out and found this little gem of parking outside. In the photo the red arrow shows where my dropped kerb starts and the white lines are the flat bit in between. On the very right of the photo is our wall so cant cut across.

Am I being unreasonable as to complain about this parking? Your thoughts please.....


Description

Our friendly police said there is nothing Illegal and they can do nothing. They contacted the owner who said he was out for a meal and took 3 1/2 hours to come back and move it.

What if anything can I do? Council don't want to know, police don't care and I'm getting a bit fed up. If I could not get the kit out for a drive then there would be real trouble.....

I live down a tight road and oftern people who have visitors decide to park by the house they are in. Thete is ample parking 30 seconds walk away up the road.

This week just gone I returned home to find a car completly blocking our driveway, it could not of blocked it more.

I know well and like all of my neighbours which is possibly why they did it, my vistors block other peoples drives for short peoples.

I just left a polite notice that if they want to stay for a while then park up the road or leave a note saying where they are.

Your problem is with complete strangers though. Still I would of felt compelled to leave a note and make note of the reg number.

I thought you had a legal right to access the highway from your property via a defined access, IE via a road or dropped kerb? I only remember it because the other way round isn't a legal right, so you can get out but can't get back!

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Originally posted by Slimy38
I thought you had a legal right to access the highway from your property via a defined access, IE via a road or dropped kerb? I only remember it because the other way round isn't a legal right, so you can get out but can't get back!

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My old house had this problem, and was one of the reasons for moving,

It used to wee me off so much, that I took it into my own hands a couple of times

one of the times, we had one of those enormous mud hauling trucks parked outside on the road and small grass verge, and semi blocking my driveway, and the owner lived in the next street, but had already been in a lot of trouble with the police and neighbours for parking this vehicle, I say park, more like abandon

Any way, after a couple of tinnies, I removed all the valves from the tyres, and superglued them back in once the tyres were flat

the truck did not move for about 3 days, and when it did, we never saw it again in the area

Must of cost the owner a lot of money to have it fixed, and an awful lot in lost revenue

This was not me, but again in that street, An old guy a few houses away used to get so irate about the parking, I really did think he would have a heart attack

he didn't own a car!! but that was how bad it was

Steve

AndyW - NO it is not unreasonable to complain about the parking. You have had your driveway blocked, you have a legal right to access your property from the road. Call the police, granted you'll have nothing in return but a letter offering a counselling service!!!! (OK, my experience, but it at least builds the case).
Forgetting the words 'legal' and 'right', used by politicians to justify similar efu actions as the van owner, let's talk about morals and such humanly friendly stuff. I would not park my van across your drveway, so I would not expect you to.

My advice is NOT to take any such actions as tyre slashing, superglued valves, headlight breaking or windscreen wiper mangling. Unless you're on benefits, renting, etc., you'll open yourself up to expensively challenged and fined criminal damage. The police love this sort of thing, you're an easy target for a lot of box-ticked punivity. One of neighbours will have a video camera out there somewhere.

I've been here, from the other angle. I had a (retired, undead, waiting for God) neighbour who felt that every inch of the roadside outside his house was his, and his alone, to park in. After he had caused me many late mornings (or absences) at work, since I had to repair my car he'd damaged overnight, I really did the camera thing to extremes, not just out into the road, but little wireless ones on the car. The police were all too quick to arrest, charge, ASBO, etc.,.... never happened again.

IIRC it's illegal to block someone in by blocking their dropped verge but it's not illegal to park across it if there is no car there. It's bloody anti-social mind!

Round here the problem is people doing illegal kerb-drops and then going bonkers if you block them in when they shouldn't be parking there in the first place. Cost of insurance is so high round here that people are tempted to do it to save the £££.

Not sure whether blocking someone who has illegally dropped their kerb is an offence- but that's slightly OT!

I live on the back of a school, down a tiny cul-de-sac. The "School run" really gets to me when I am holiday with people sitting in there car out side my front window and drive from 2pm onwards to secure "there place". In the past I've offered to follow them home and park my vehicles in front of there property for a week end when they spout "its a public road" and have boxed them in and got nasty.

We have reasonable understanding with the neighbours but visitors, there's and ours don't understand or respect this causing some arse ach.

There is nothing I can do in real terms other than move.

I have a similar problem with a Sports Club, one day they completely blocked me in (and all the other residents too). It turned out to be a club official who was the main culprit, who told me to bugger off as there was nothing I could do. That was like a red rag to a bull in my case. I contacted my lawyer.

1) They were causing an obstruction, and could have been charged if the police ever turned up. They get dozens of calls per day about this sort of thing and tag it low priority.

2) I was told I could take out the legal equivalent of an injunction. This would ban the sports club holding their activities till they showed they had put in place measures to control the parking.

After collecting sufficient photographic evidence, I held a meeting with the sports club and the residents, presented the evidence and eluded to the legal options. The caved in and put in place sufficient measures to make the problem liveable with.

My advice is go see a lawyer, the first few emails, or initial consultation with most Lawyers is free to outline your possible course of action on their part.

My further advice is to avoid legal action if at all possible. Are any of your neighbours affected, makes your case more relevant. Gather sufficient evidence of the problem and dates and times. Hold a meeting with the train company and insist they answer your complaint in writing. Their activities are attracting the abusive parkers who are their customers. It is my understanding the train company have a duty of responsibility in this case. I am however not a lawyer.

I have simillar problems with bad parking, though I don't have a drive so not quite the same thing, what gets me most is there ar eloads of people with drive ways round here that don't use them, then have visitors round who take up all the parking. The people over the road are the most annoying for this as they frequently have 3 or 4 cars vist them at once, they don't even park over the empty driveway and one of there frequent visitors likes to park exactly in the middle of my house and our neighbours, which because of drive ways and a disabled space mean they take up two spaces.

On the flip side, if you were in south Glos they would have sent a Policeman out and I believe you get a fine as parking infront of a dropped curb is prohibbited in this county.

It's probably not actually worth doing but I imagine you could probably sue them in civil court as the van has clearly blocked the driveway completely, and I agreeing to move it but taking 3 hours really isn't acceptable

Non-damaging application of a trolley jack will permit access to you drive and cause the van to be blocking the road, so police should get it towed...

I wouldn't hesitate to swing the back end out with a jack. I was halfway through doing this to a sierra many years back that parked all the way across my driveway when the (female) owner returned and had a bit of a fit. She literally couldn't see anything wrong with parking across a dropped kerb whilst my car was in my driveway, which just proves that there are some pig ignorant and utterly selfish people around.

[Edited on 10/11/13 by MikeRJ]

My understanding is that it is an offence to block someones clearly defined access to their driveway.
If the police are not keen to attend, advise then that upon the return of the vehicles owner there is likely to be a 'breach of the peace'.
Not sure if it is still the same but There used to be a mandatory requirement for the police to attend if they believed or had been advised a 'breach of the peace' was likely to occur.

I'm with Mikerj, but I'd get the Landy and drag it into the middle of the road then call the Police and say there's an abandoned
van in the street.

[Edited on 10/11/13 by NigeEss]

I can't see much of the street/road, but couldn't you put two traffic cones about a metre from the kerb from the two white lines? It might look a bit antisocial but might get the point across

Dave

Unless there are other parking restrictions on that street, it's a civil offence under the traffic management act 2004 Part 6 (para 86.1.(iii)) so the police have every right to demand it's moved.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/18/part/6

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Originally posted by scimjim
Unless there are other parking restrictions on that street, it's a civil offence under the traffic management act 2004 Part 6 (para 86.1.(iii)) so the police have every right to demand it's moved.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/18/part/6

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84 Designation of special enforcement areas

Schedule 10 provides for the designation of areas (“special enforcement areas”) where the following sections apply—
section 85 (prohibition of double parking etc.);
section 86 (prohibition of parking at dropped footways etc.).

Schedule 10: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/18/schedule/10

clear as mud,

but thanks for your response !