bad parking

[katmakenian]

We have a neighbour who parks nearby who's parking is dangerous to say the worst, careless at the least. As far as I know, she works at night and then comes home early hours and seems to dump her car wherever she feels fit. The other night she parked on the road, not in an allocated space, and her car was about 2ft away from the kerb, so much so that it prevented easy flow of traffic into the road. She often parks her car outside garage doors, obviously causing access problems to garages, etc to neighbours, me being one of them last year! My question is this: What can we do about this? I have started taking photos of her parking to compile a dossier of evidence for authorities but I am not sure who to present this to. Police are underfunded so are unable to come out to what they call a "trivial" matter; Local Council say they want evidence, hence the dossier; Traffic wardens - don't remember the last time I saw one around here!! Any advice would be very gratefully received. Thanks!

[Buenchico]

>>>Police are underfunded so are unable to come out to what they call a "trivial" matter<<<

A perfectly true statement but most police forces allocate one or more 'community police officers' to cover each area within their jurisdiction. Most of those officers are bored stiff and just itching to find something to do. Find out who your local 'community constable' is. (It's common for local shops, particularly post offices, to display such information, together with contact details). Get in touch and, politely but firmly, remind Pc Plod that it's a criminal offence under Section 137 of the Highways Act 1980 to deliberately obstruct the movement of a vehicle on a highway. Further point out that it's also an offence under Regulation 103 of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 to "cause or permit a vehicle to stand on a road so as to cause an unnecessary obstruction".

You might then find that bored old Pc Plod will 'have a quiet word' in the relevant ear ;-)

Chris

[chas2008]

not an uncommon problem or response, even when its clearly dangerous parking no one seems to want to own the problem.
My daugher has similiar issues with parking on the pavement outside her house even to the point they park so close she cant get a pushchair out of the gate, on the rare occasion she saw a warden she was told that unless there were yellow lines it wasnt there problem !!

[peterdeanmagic]

its only ever a problem when the fire engine cant get through!
leave a note under the window saying "please leave me a giant can opener next time so i can get my car through the gap you left"

[pink-kittens]

chas, when my eldest was a baby in a buggy I did once run her buggy over a car, literally
Whether anything wold have been done had I been caught I don't know but it gave me a huge sense of self satisfaction
At my old age now, I will and do bang cars with my handbag, shopping bag etc if they are parked where they shouldn't be

[Nosha123]

if her car kept getting damaged she might think more carefully

Also - if your car is in the garage and you cannot get out.. you can call the police and they will tow hers away! If she is blocking you IN the garage i believe it is seen more sternly than blocking you OUT - since you may be on an emergency trip somewhere and being prevented

[chas2008]

pink-kittens,
a couple of years ago one of my grandsons (7) broke his leg and ended up in a wheelchair for a month or so...Its amazing how many inconsiderate people there are out there as regards parking i took great delight in arguing with them and knocking door/wing mirrors i refused to walk in the road with him when the pavement was blocked...

[gina32]

there was a car near my premises recently that always parked on the corner and so i went onot the local police website and put in a complaint, a few days later a community copper came round and since then no problems

[katmakenian]

Thanks so much for all your replies - it's certainly given me food for thought. I like what you said Buenchico - I'm going to print off what you've suggested and use it as a script!! And just for information Nosha, she did block my car in our garage in December. We called the Police about 9:30am after we had been hammering on her door for about an hour and Police did attend but only after I told them I might be tempted to break a window on the car and push the car out of the way, because then they could've got me for criminal damage or something like it. All they did when the Police arrived was knock on her door for about half an hour and leave a note through her door saying to be more considerate in future. The note did no good and she still insists on parking with reckless abandon! We didn't manage to get our car out of the garage until 4pm the same day when she finally moved her car! Neither me not my husband were able to get to work that day and there was nothing we could do about it!