My neighbour has demolished their garage in the back garden and grubbed up the drive. It’s going to be soft landcaped only. There is still the old dropped kerb.

Can I park there now or do they get to call dibs, even though the kerb isn’t going to be used.

Do what you want, there’s nae polis to enforce it anyway. Parking has been controlled by local authority where I live for a few years now, there’s no traffic wardens either.

Personally I’d just ask. Better to keep neighbours on side irrelevant of what the rules say.

Why not just speak to your neighbour?

Do what you want, there’s nae polis to enforce it anyway.

This very true. As well as dropped kerbs my driveways have a box of hatched white lines painted    across them making it in actual, honest to goodness traffic offence to leave a vehicle there. They are also visible from the police station

Nobbers still park there with impunity.

Just wondered what the rules are, for a gently bit of push back. Neighbourliness seems to be rather one sided recently.

They have just put a drive in their front garden and which will have a dropped kerb as well.

Careful it sounds like the entrance to the bat cave. Has Adam West moved in recently?

Nobbers still park there with impunity.

Does he live that close ?

Perchy – they can block you out but not block you in.
They can even park in your drive and sod all you can do other than go to court as a civil case.
If they block you in then it 5’O as that is an offence

They can even park in your drive and sod all you can do other than go to court as a civil case.

Smash window, remove hand break and gently push in to road. It was like that when I came home, kids today etc.

OP – Just talk to your neighbour. If you’re already on shaky ground then that would seem to be the sensible option. They can only say no (or kill you).

they can block you out but not block you in.

I thought that was the rule. But I can’t find it anywhere?

Here you go:

Vehicles parked partially across the dropped kerb may be ticketed. The vehicle does not have to be fully blocking the driveway. Parking very close to the dropped kerb or directly opposite is not illegal, even if it restricts or impedes access.

Perchy – they can block you out but not block you in.

In my case, the box of white chevrons makes it a criminal offence to enter it with a vehicle.
An offence that I commit several times a day just to get in and out, so I don’t really want to push the case for strict enforcement. 😉

When I was a child, my dad got really annoyed one Saturday when a car was parked on the drop kerb blocking his drive and he couldn’t get his car out.

There were plenty of free parking spaces in the street, and absolutely no need to block his drive.

After a couple of hours he was absolutely livid. He fetched his socket set from the garage and started removing the front wheel from said vehicle.

Adopting this approach is not advisable.

When your place of work arranges for a hire car to be dropped at your house, it helps to leave the wheels attached. even if the hire company has delivered it a day earlier than expected.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I’ve got new neighbours and our drive, while being double width, only has a dropped kerb on one half of it. Their visitors have taken to parking in front of my drive where the dropped kerb isn’t, but my car overtly is. There’s loads of parking (in front of their own bloody house for one!) so I don’t see why they need to do this. After ignoring it for a bit (didn’t want to fall out with them after just a couple of months!) I eventually went round and asked if they would stop doing it, which they took pretty well. Since then, it’s only happened a couple of times and I’m a bit more chilled about it now. Hopefully once we get the other kerb dropped, it’ll stop anyway.

It’s an odd thing, but nothing pissed me off more than people I don’t know parking across my drive, even for a short time. It really bloody annoys me – irrationally really – and I should probably learn to be more chilled out.

(FYI, I already have planning permission to drop the remaining half, but that’ll need to wait for the drive to be re-done and that’s got to wait for the garage refurb to finish…later this year I hope!)

When we had this, the police told us they’d act if someone was blocking us in as it would be classed as blocking access to the highway. If they were blocking us from getting into the drive, they wouldn’t do anything. Not sure how accurate it is though – they might have just wanted me to go away!

I was hoping someone would quote chapter and verse.

I’ll do my best to avoid ‘their’ spot but it grates rather that someone can call dibs when the dropped kerb doesn’t access a drive or garage anymore.

We have a neighbour with a garage and dropped curb. They never use the garage, but have recently got a white line painted in front of it so they can park their plugin hybrid there and charge it using a cable across the pavement. Parking is quite tight around our roads, so they have effectively reserved their parking space. Everyone always used to park across the garage before the line and sign. It niggles me a bit, but then I do park our big van and car on the street so can’t complain too much

It’s a traffic offence to park on your own white line, our traffic warden who appears once in a blue moon gave the wife a ticket for it.

I try not to do it tbh, as I know one knows it’s my car, and it ‘normalises’ parking like that.

I’d be surprised if it’s okay to have a cable across a pavement.

Why don’t they just park it in the garage instead? Weirdos

Dropped kerbs aren’t just for cars to access private land, they’re also for wheelchairs to get down to cross tbe road. Obviously depends on their location whether they serve this purpose.

We have a dropped curb that is redundant due to gardenised drive. It is now treated a normal parking by everyone and quite rightly.

It’s purely a vehicle dropped kerb.  But now one no vehicle could / would want to cross.

Smash window, remove hand break

Or alternatively use something else to break the glass and save yourself a world of pain.

your place of work arranges for a hire car to be dropped at your house

With no keys or paperwork? Nah

why is this an issue? why would you all of a sudden need to park across your neighbours old drive or are you just trying to upset them?

I’ll do my best to avoid ‘their’ spot but it grates rather that someone can call dibs when the dropped kerb doesn’t access a drive or garage anymore.

WTF?! What has changed? It’s still the bit of road outside THEIR house. Why do you feel that it’s now fair game for you to use as you wish?

why is this an issue? why would you all of a sudden need to park across your neighbours old drive or are you just trying to upset them?

THIS +1

They have had over 6 months of builders in (since we moved in). I hadn’t clocked that they considered it ‘their’ spot as there was usually a white van of some sort parked there. I parked there yesterday because I had a load of slabs and bags of sand I needed to take it down the back lane (this was the nearest free spot). I notice their ageing ‘please dont park’ sticker, but as they had grubbed up the parking behind, assumed it was now fair game.

Neighbour came round last night and pointed out they had sole use of that spot. My point is that having a dropped kerb leading nowhere shouldn’t give you dibs on a spot.

I’ll always try and park somewhere else.

It’s still the bit of road outside THEIR house. Why do you feel that it’s now fair game for you to use as you wish?

Because it’s the public road. They don’t own it.

Neighbour came round last night and pointed out they had sole use of that spot.

Did you point out that they don’t?

Dropped kerb aside, you have as much right to park in front of their house as they do. With a dropped kerb providing access to their driveway, you can’t park there but neither do they have the right to block it off with their own car. With the dropped kerb not providing access it’s a bit of an odd one, either both of you can park there or neither of you can. The presence of a dropped kerb in no way implies ownership of public land.

If they want to play silly bastards, get on to the council to get it un-dropped.

Ask your neighbour.

WTF?! What has changed? It’s still the bit of road outside THEIR house. Why do you feel that it’s now fair game for you to use as you wish?

Ignoring the dropped curve – can I check you don’t believe that a piece of public road outside a house is for the sole use of the house owner.

Ignoring the dropped curve – can I check you don’t believe that a piece of public road outside a house is for the sole use of the house owner.

Of course there’s no legal ownership of the bit of road outside your house but someone assuming that they can just park there regularly is taking the **** and would suggest that they’ve got too many cars/entitlement issues.

Rule No 1: Don’t be a dick.

It’s still the bit of road outside THEIR house. Why do you feel that it’s now fair game for you to use as you wish?

Because it’s the public road. They don’t own it.

This +1. If you want a parking space, buy the land, don’t convert your drive/garage to something else but still expect parking space on a public road.

someone assuming that they can anyone else can’t just park there regularly is taking the **** and would suggest that they’ve got too many cars/entitlement issues.

FTFY.

Speeder, philjunior and cougar are bang on.

(Obvs this is within limits – I try not to park in front of my neighbour’s garden, they try not to park in front of mine, but it happens from time to time and it’s politeness not the law, and tough on both of us if we can’t fit our cars anywhere near our houses or on our land.)

Speeder, rule one applies, but to the person trying to reserve ‘their’ space on the public highway not any one else that parks there.

Of course there’s no legal ownership of the bit of road outside your house but someone assuming that they can just park there regularly is taking the **** and would suggest that they’ve got too many cars/entitlement issues.

Rule No 1: Don’t be a dick.

Not being a dick is understanding that irrespective of car ownership per house, in many places parking is a limited resource and everyone has to just get on with it and park wherever they can (legally). Resenting other humans you live near by from parking outside your house is being a massive dick.

Just drive up onto the pavement and wedge your car between the road and a lamp post to make sure it’s completely blocked. Seems to be the accepted technique these days.

The police won’t do anything but equally they probably won’t do anything either when you come back to your car to find the tyres slashed / keyed / paint thrown over it.