How to discourage cars from parking on my low kerb in front of my house?

The problem is I live in a terraced house with a pavement outside the door then the road. The kerb is only about 2 inches high and the “pavement” a few years ago was laid with cobbles in concrete by the previous owners, it does look nice 👍😁 it’s my land not a random pavement🤔
The problem I have is that because the drop is so small people are arking on the cobbles, I had some berk park a van right outside my front door and if I’d had anything big to get in or out of the house I couldn’t 😒
So I’ve been looking for something I can possibly fix to the kerb stones to encourage people to park on the road and not my pavement but can’t find anything suitable.
Any ideas from the collective out there? 👍😁😁😁

If it’s your land put removable bollards up so you can access it if you need to.

I don’t really want something big, just along the lines of you wouldn’t want to drive your car over them 👍

Nothing you can put on the kerb as its not your kerb.

Maybe ask the council for a residents parking scheme – then people can be fined for not parking wholey within the bay.

Have the same problem. Well, no cobbles, but door opens onto the pavement which people seem to think is now fair game to park cars.

I usually leave a note under the windscreen wiper pointing out that I can’t get into my own front door. If I’m in when someone parks there, I do go and mention it personally, I don’t hide behind the notes.

I’ve called the police once (101) when a car had been there for a couple of days. It was gone in 20 mins.

You can’t really go putting up bollards or obstacles on a pavement as that is just as bad as parking something there.

Possibly print a sign for your front door that says ‘No parking, access required’ but how absurd would that be?

So in short, I can’t really suggest anything other than a campaign of polite requests for people to obey the law and **** off.

A bear

Buy a car with a years mot and park it in front of your house, on the road.
Leave for 12 months.

Nothing you can put on the kerb as its not your kerb.

it’s my land not a random pavement

That sorted, what about either raised intermittent cobbles if they run end to end or just some large stones if they run across the “pavement”.

Is it a pavement? Reading the OP it sounds more like some kind of paved yard…they say it’s their land?

Edit: crossed posts with above.

it’s my land not a random pavement

Put a “No Parking” sign up for a start.

Remove a few of the cobbles and put in some larger, upright, stones.

Stick a planter on it with some pot plants.

Anti-tank mines?

Onzadog

Member

Nothing you can put on the kerb as its not your kerb.

Maybe ask the council for a residents parking scheme – then people can be fined for not parking wholey within the bay.

That’s where you end up paying for the privilege of a permit to park on the road in front of your own house, then it’s a total pain if anyone comes to visit? Think I’d pass TBH.

JP

Planters + anti tank mines incase anyone tries to releive you of them

an old sofa

Are you trying to stop people parking there and also allow you to park there as well?
If so, only way I can see to do it is removable bollards as mention above.

Village near me uses both heavy plant pots and a shrub to prevent parking outside their doors, and also a couple of old bicycles locked to them.

As its your land…one of two of these should do the trick, however would look best with an old postie or butchers classic bike rather than a rusty old supermarket special sitting there rusting away.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Galvanised-Sheffield-Cycle-Hoop-Bike-Stand-CEMENT-IN/202122057863?epid=9010165473&hash=item2f0f69d887:g:JFMAAOSwOA1aFbqd

Feel your pain OP. There is a large footpath outside our house and people treat it like free parking. Not just parking with wheels cheekily on there. Full on parking the entire car on the footpath. Difficult to get out of the front door sometimes.

A pair of semi trained Council House Cats that will sleep on the bonnet of the offending car before sliding off with their claws out leaving a trail of scratches behind them.

The sort of cats the local Staffies gives a wide berth too.

Is it a low kerb or a dropped kerb?

What’s “your land,” the pavement or the road?

If it’s a low kerb and a public road, tough shit. If it’s a dropped kerb then blocking it is illegal, if the objection is that they’re a foot up on your pavement then chuck a rock there.

Pics please.

Assuming it’s a public road, where is the physical boundary between it and your property ?

Contact your local authority, ask for a plan showing the highway boundary at your address. It being your land is largely irrelevant if it’s highway. Then if it is highway ask the authority to solve the problem – be polite and insistent, and if not do all of the above.

If it’s a dropped kerb then blocking it is illegal

Only if there’s a car parked on the drive at the time.

It’s a dick move regardless but not blanket illigal

Claymore. They’ll never do it again. I’m kidding. Please don’t do that. What about a planter. Long narrow one about 2mm your side of the kerb? Narrow enough to not hinder you, but it might get the point across

Smash up the cars with a lump hammer?
Eventually folk will stop parking there and you get great stress relief in the interim.

We have a grass verge between pavement and the road, and the grass gets churned up as parents simply cannot drop their children off more than fifty yards from the nearby school. Council put yellow lines down but don’t enforce it, so no use. We put a couble of tubs out, did all right and looked lovely last year, had c**ts drive over and destroy both this year. Council’s currently installing double kerbs – when that’s in, I’m investing in big, heavy pots and caltrops.

Planters 👍 great idea, I’ve had in my head a fixed physical solution but they’ll be enough of a subtle deterrent I hope 👍😁

Lie on the cobbles and flap your arms and legs a bit like a snow Angel until they move on and park somewhere else.

Only if there’s a car parked on the drive at the time.

Nonsense. That’s an urban myth.

Are you sure it’s your land? The “highway” normally extends to the back of the footpath.

Didn’t you see them swigging from a bottle?

Nonsense. That’s an urban myth.

It may be, but if it is, then it is believed widely enough that the police think it’s true.

At our old house, We were told by the local police that they couldn’t do anything unless we were blocked in
And the first time we were, they sent a lift truck and removed the car blocking us in.
But when we were blocked from getting on the drive they did nothing except log the complaint. 🙄

i get people parking outside mine all the time. its on a dual carriageway so people see my drive as a nice drop off spot!
the council put up bollards. it just means that the waggons ran them over and then they park on the actual drive instead.

the best deterrent is very large white painted rocks.

Small point of confusion. There’s a difference between a dropped kerb designed to allow wheelchair users to cross the road, usually found near junctions in urban streets, and a kerb that has been dropped to access a residential driveway.

The urban dropped kerb is found near crossings to allow for easy access for wheelchairs, pushchairs, visually impaired and cyclists to access the crossing or simply cross the road safely. Most councils now have devolved parking enforcement responsibilities and blocking one will earn a ticket.

A kerb that has been lowered to allow access to a residential driveway does NOT have the same rules. This is covered by the laws surrounding obstruction of a highway. This simply states it’s an offence simply to impede progress ALONG a highway.

(1)If a person, without lawful authority or excuse, in any way wilfully obstructs the free passage along a highway he is guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding [F1level 3 on the standard scale].

So this is interpreted as an offence to stop someone from using a highway…… not from leaving one. Police will take an interest if you can’t get your car onto a highway in order to use it, but not if you are prevented from leaving it.

Basically advice is that blocking driveways is a civil offence, but it’s been stretched to help those who can’t get their car out of the drive.

It may be, but if it is, then it is believed widely enough that the police think it’s true.

Aye, Police Scotland believer it not to be a myth either, was them that told me….

Only if there’s a car parked on the drive at the time.

Nonsense. That’s an urban myth.

If the dropped kerb has a h bar then I think the rules are different.

H Bars are advisory only. They don’t change the law.

They are designed to discourage parking across access points, but it isn’t an offence to park on one per se.

The council painted boxes on the road in front of the driveways on my street. Presumably to discourage parking over driveways and to confine parking to the marked bays between the driveways.

A box formed of solid white lines with white diagonal stripes.

Only problem is that, according to the Highway Code…..

130
Areas of white diagonal stripes or chevrons painted on the road. These are to separate traffic lanes or to protect traffic turning right.

• If the area is bordered by a broken white line, you should not enter the area unless it is necessary and you can see that it is safe to do so.
• If the area is marked with chevrons and bordered by solid white lines you MUST NOT enter it except in an emergency.

Laws MT(E&W)R regs 5, 9, 10 & 16, MT(S)R regs 4, 8, 9 & 14, RTA sect 36 & TSRGD 10(1)

Every time I enter, or exit my driveway, I’m breaking the law.

Every time I enter, or exit my driveway, I’m breaking the law.

I would have Judas Priest playing in my head all the time. Sweet.

To the OP. the only true solution is to take an angle grinder to the car, cut out the bits that are on your land, and sell them to a scrappie. Or maybe the white stones/planter idea.

It boils my piss when people go on about cyclists riding on the pavement when there are so many cars that have clearly driven on the pavement and blocked the whole **** thing to park there.