Residents enforcing own parking rules

[ayrforce1]

I was working at a house and parked ouside on the public road. There are no yellow lines, or parking restriction notices and as the houses on the opposite side have open drives , no gates, I made sure that I would not be obstucting them. There were no cars parked on the other side of the street within reasonable distance and buses passed easily as i had witnessed. As I required access to my van at various times for materials , tools etc. and to load rubbish, i considered that I had parked responsibly and reasonably.
I had been parked for around 2 hours when a bus driver came to the door asking if i could move my van. I went out to the street to find that a resident on the other side had parked directly accross from be , despite there being other spaces, and had therefor not left space for the bus to pass.
I , of course moved my van, now to the other side of the road, where I left it for the rest of the day, and carried back and forth. The really annoying bit is that the bus driver saw the driver of the other vehicle look out when he sounded his horn but they did not come to move their car. he also confirmed that I had not been causing an obstruction as he had passed my van 3 times earlier that day, and the day previous.
I mentioned the incident to another resident , to be told that they always parked on the opposite side of the street and that I therefor was double parked , not the neighbour who had arrived after me.
Now I`m not an unreasonable person and I know that you don`t have a right to park on the public highway, but can a group of residents set up their own parking rules.

[Canary42]

It's always the decent folk who get shafted.

[whiskeryron]

I usually find that a handfull of carpet tacks which have accidentally been dropped on the opposite side of the road usually works wonders

[Whickerman]

no. No they cannot.

[jackthehat]

No, they can't.
It may be an informal 'rule' that enables everyone to live in relative harmony on this street, but it is utterly uneforceable, in law.

As the 'outsider', naturally, you'll have been considered to be the one out of step and the pack-mentality of the residents would probably have carried enough weight for Mr Plod to have asked you to move, should it have been necessary for him to be called.

[ayrforce1]

Many thanks, we`ll be finished in a couple of days so I`ll just have to persevere.

[soft123]

no