Parking rant/advice

[sherrardk]

We have just had the police around for the second time in a week to have a chat about our parking 'situation'.  We have off-road parking for one car (which we did with our landlords consent at our own expense) and my husband parks his van across the front of our house, half on and half off the pavement (to let others get past and to get on/off their own drives).  No one down the end of the cul-de-sac has mobility issues or use a pushchair so we are not overly inconveniencing anyone else (I can't get our buggy out of the house and past the van but that's ok).  We have sold one car so that we don't need any more parking space but it seems people are still not happy.  When we parked around the corner (on a wider road, on the side of the street without houses on) we had notes stuck on our car (saying they would get the police, etc) and we had people telling/asking us not to park there.  What more could we have done? Are we being selfish?

[karenmac60]

Where does everyone else park Sher?

[supersuezy24]

I don't think you are being selfish at all! You have already sold one car to convenience your neighbours, i think they are just being awkward.

[sherrardk]

Hi, they park on the their drives with visitors parking on the road outside of the property they are visiting or around the corner.

[samak]

Public road, public parking. First come, first served.

[boxtops]

Is it fact that you are partly on the pavement which is bugging people? This happened to my neighbour, the parking people said "what if a blind man comes past?" -er, they would avoid the car...

[China Doll]

I would find it annoying for any car to be parked partly on the street. However, I don't think I'd go to the lengths of making an issue over it. Especially if you've tried to park elsewhere and that's no good. What would happen if you parked the van on the street and not on the pavement at all? Would that cause more issues?

I would think that unless your van is breaking the law on the other street, they could put as many notes as they wanted on your car but it wouldn't do any good! Is there a ring leader or something you could actually 'what more do you want?' (I'm not saying compromise here, just ask the question and see what they say). Ultimately, if they're being really unreasonable, I think you would just have to ignore them.

[karenmac60]

So it's ok for them to have cars parked in the street but not you? Tell em to s0d off ;)

[sherrardk]

Don't really know what the problem is - even the copper said we were doing the best we could to avoid irritating people and keeping the road clear. To be honest, I have never seen any of the people from the end of the close walk anywhere! The man across the road has just put his house on the market so I suppose he might be concerned that the obvious lack of parking might put people off (but if he asked, we would move the van when he had viewings). The house two doors up is 'connected' to the people who are harassing me so I suppose it could be part of that (should have mentioned it to the copper when he was here!).

[boxtops]

It sounds as if the police are ticking a box by coming to see you - they're not making an issue of it?

[China Doll]

Well if the police aren't making an issue of it then I don't see what you have to worry about.

Have you said to the neighbour selling the house that you'll happily move the van on viewing days if they want you to? Maybe they don't realise you would be willing to do that.

At the moment I'm agreeing with Karen and thinking just ignore them!

[sherrardk]

The police man was very nice and said that we were being very considerate and he didn't see what else we could do.

[China Doll]

Don't worry then. You've enough on your plate to be taking this to heart.

[starone]

So, you have one car which you park on the driveway and a van which you park outside. No problem there then, except of course theoretically it is against the law to park partially on the pavement. Having said that and on looking out into the street I live in, if they did not park with two wheels on the pavement anything like fire engines would be unable to drive up the street,- could make problems. Do any of the others park their cars outside with wheels on the pavement, or are you the only one? Some people seem to think that the bit of road outside their house belongs to them. As long as you have paid your road tax I believe you can park anywhere, except for double yellow lines, access to people's driveways and outside of schools etc. As that doesn't seem to apply in your case the best thing to do is ignore them. Shame to be in conflict with your neighbours though as you have to live in close proximity to them.