Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 44 total)
  • parking wars
  • yunki
    Free Member

    My road has inadequate space to accommodate all the vehicles from the various flats and houses, plus being a stonesthrow from the town centre every Tom, Dick and Harriet parks in our street to avoid parking fees in town..
    I’m in the slightly envious position of having a garage in the back lane..
    It has a big NO PARKING sign and the locals are well aware that a valued parking space is not to be messed with..

    So far, so good..

    Our neighbours a few doors up have been having building work done since spring, doubling the size of their house and adding what is either a new national observatory or perhaps a migrant camp to their roof..
    Living next door to a noisy building site for the last six months has been mildly irritating, but imagine my wraith when I got back from the school run to find a decorators van parked in front of my garage with a cheery note informing me that they are working at number 18 as if somehow that should absolve them from responsibility..

    Should I let it go and park half a mile away?
    Should I pop round and politely request that they move it?

    Or was I right in my choice of action, which was to leave a note on their windscreen informing them that I couldn’t give a stuff if they were working in Buckingham Palace shaving her majesty the Queen’s bikini line they still haven’t got the right to park in front of my garage.. I also asked if it would be OK for me to come around and park in his drive tonight..

    aracer
    Free Member

    Passive aggression is always the right answer.

    Junkyard
    Free Member

    One of those a one off is fine but time and it happening a lot starts to grate

    I would have actually spoken to them though.

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    bencooper
    Free Member

    You know there’s only one answer:

    [video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksZpLfjxxRA[/video]

    mattbee
    Full Member

    I suspect they left the note explaining where they were working so that you could go and ask them to move if needs be.
    Still, I’m sure your response was the most appropriate.

    sandwicheater
    Full Member

    You should have also threatened to bumb his dog. Only way they will learn (the painters, not the dog. Some would say the dog had nothing to do with it. You’ll show them though, won’t you?)

    jambalaya
    Free Member

    I would have asked them to move it and not park their in future. The painter can park a few streets away too.

    If the neighbour was one I was on good terms with and they had asked in advance then for a short time they could park there if it wasn’t a big inconvenience.

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    I suspect the OP’s going to get home and find his garage door’s been decorated.

    thestabiliser
    Free Member

    Passive aggressive

    ‘rights’

    mountain out of mole hill

    bristling

    delighted at own wit

    You’re needed over on the trick or treat thred

    Pook
    Full Member

    Politely pop round surely?

    Now not only does the decorator think you’re a Dilbert, but probably your neighbour does too. All because you couldn’t calm down a bit.

    McHamish
    Free Member

    Don’t worry.

    They won’t take it personally, and you’ve probably given him and the other builders something to laugh about today.

    D0NK
    Full Member

    I suspect they left the note explaining where they were working so that you could go and ask them to move if needs be.

    true but where do you put your car while you go get the vehicle owner? A few streets away? leave it blocking the road while you go look for them and compounding the issue?

    The only guaranteed parking spot is one you own, someone blocking that is not really on. One off is a faff, more than once would be very annoying

    yunki
    Free Member

    What I’m getting from your responses is that it would have been more appropriate to daub ‘your mum’s working at number 18’ across his windscreen in decorator’s caulk?

    FWIW I reckon McHamish’s response is the most insightful 🙂

    I shall definitely refer to the offending workman as ‘cheekychops’ when he comes out to move his van later

    captainsasquatch
    Free Member

    Should I let it go and park half a mile away?
    Should I pop round and politely request that they move it?

    Or was I right in my choice of action, which was to leave a note on their windscreen informing them that I couldn’t give a stuff if they were working in Buckingham Palace shaving her majesty the Queen’s bikini line they still haven’t got the right to park in front of my garage.. I also asked if it would be OK for me to come around and park in his drive tonight..
    They left the note for exactly this reason.
    Your choice of note would simply encourage me to park in front of your garage as there are no legal parking restrictions. Suck it up sweetlips.

    nickjb
    Free Member

    Should I pop round and politely request that they move it?

    Yep, you could have behaved like an adult but you showed them 😛

    andytherocketeer
    Full Member

    first time, ask them politely to move it
    subsequent times, abandon car and block them in

    I have this almost every single day. I have a city center garage with about one space to pull car off the road to gain access to the garage, and 1-2 spaces parked on the dropped kerb.

    the traffic wardens can’t ticket anyone abandoning their car on “our” property, and don’t seem to give tickets for anyone abandoning their cars on our dropped kerb. they only dish out tickets to those parked in the metered bay that have overstayed etc.

    the proprietor of a local shop and his staff park there every effing day, without fail, and must get told (not asked, but told) to move cars several times per day. all to save the purchase of a season ticket to park anywhere within the whole metered district. pillocks.

    and their customers similarly abandon their cars, knowing that because they’re only in the shop for 15 minutes, they are absolved of all responsibility cos they can quickly move it out the way. hazard warning lights also seem to mean “I’m not staying all that long, so don’t need a parking ticket”.

    I can similarly abandon my car on my dropped kerb, leaving about 1 inch of space 😉

    calling then c***s daily has no effect at reducing the car abandonment. they honestly CGAS. and I doubt the cops GAS either.

    yunki
    Free Member

    Nickjb – behave like an adult!?

    Grow up sonny Jim.. 😆

    Who in their right mind goes through life looking for opportunities to behave like an adult!?

    andytherocketeer
    Full Member

    PS it’s also a one way street.
    Apparently one-way means it’s only really mostly one way, and if you only need to get to (someone else’s) parking space 50m from the exit end of the street, it’s fine to just “nip down the wrong way”.
    And I’ve also been told to reverse up and give them space so they can finish their “manoeuvre”, and that with me attempting to exit my garage and street, I am blocking them and holding them (and the rest of the traffic) up.

    And here in Germany, it’s illegal to perform expletive gesticulations when at the wheel.

    When they have that mentality, you stand no chance of winning.

    captainsasquatch
    Free Member

    calling then c***s daily has no effect at reducing the car abandonment. they honestly CGAS. and I doubt the cops GAS either.

    Why should the GAS when they’re not doing anything illegal and some busy body cross between Victor Meldrew and Hyacinth Bucket come gobbing off with obscene langauge talking about some space that they believe is “theirs”?
    Some people need to get a grip. 🙄
    😆

    andytherocketeer
    Full Member

    dropped kerb is a legal access, not “my” parking space.
    space off the road is not anyone’s parking space.
    as a comparison that’d be the equivalent of either parking on your drive for 15 minutes while I nip to the shops, or parking across your front gate, which is not quite the same as parking outside your house on the bit of street that homeowners might believe is “theirs”.

    so essentially what we have is a street, that is metered parking both sides, except for all the driveway access, that appears to be free for anyone to use at any time. (edit: and regularly used ALL the time)

    allan23
    Free Member

    Get some of that reflective spray stuff and spray a cock n balls on the back of the van.

    Invisible until they’re driving home in the dark and providing amusement for the vehicle following.

    (I can’t be the only one who thought of amusing things to do with reflective spray other than make your bike more visible?)

    edlong
    Free Member

    with a cheery note informing me that they are working at number 18 as if somehow that should absolve them from responsibility would make it easy for another sensible adult to easily locate them should the van need to be moved..

    Fixed etc.

    leave a note on their windscreen informing them that I couldn’t give a stuff if they were working in Buckingham Palace shaving her majesty the Queen’s bikini line they still haven’t got the right to park in front of my garage

    Have you considered a career in showbiz? Really, with that level of wit, both clever and devastatingly funny, you could be the next big thing. I bet the decorators are even now asking their client why he hadn’t mentioned that they lived next door to one of humanity’s greatest wits. You’re like the lovechild of Peter Ustinov and Alan Bennett.

    I bet you send really, really hilariously funny emails complaining about poor service from big companies too, don’t you?

    Must dash, the ironing won’t do itself..

    yunki
    Free Member

    To wit, to woo

    D0NK
    Full Member

    Why should the GAS when they’re not doing anything illegal

    pretty sure blocking access to drives/garages is illegal

    bensales
    Free Member

    andytherocketeer – Member
    dropped kerb is a legal access, not “my” parking space.
    space off the road is not anyone’s parking space.
    as a comparison that’d be the equivalent of either parking on your drive for 15 minutes while I nip to the shops, or parking across your front gate, which is not quite the same as parking outside your house on the bit of street that homeowners might believe is “theirs”.

    so essentially what we have is a street, that is metered parking both sides, except for all the driveway access, that appears to be free for anyone to use at any time. (edit: and regularly used ALL the time)

    Why can’t you put one, or a couple, of something like this at the entrance to your garage access then?

    Folding Parking Post

    captainsasquatch
    Free Member

    Highway says “Do not” not “Must not” https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/waiting-and-parking-238-to-252. No associated law.

    thegreatape
    Free Member

    In the next village from me, there lives a couple who are so possessive over the piece of road outside their house that they bought, taxed and insured two extra cars to prevent anyone else parking there – one immediately in front of their house, one in front of their non-driving elderly neighbours driveway. This ‘protected’ both sides of the entrance to their driveway where they keep the two cars that they use each day. They had a wobble recently when the elderly neighbours house was sold, and the new owner wanted to use their driveway, but eventually and begrudgingly accepted they would have to move one of the protector cars. Batshit mental some people.

    andytherocketeer
    Full Member

    folding parking post could stop people parking on the one space that’s fully off the road, but won’t stop them parking on the dropped kerb / pavement. there used to be one on an adjacent space that was reserved for one property but that’s gone. so that space just gets uses as free parking too, but that’s not blocking access to shared garage.

    germany, so highway code doesn’t apply in this case, although it will for the OP. but given that the proprietor, staff and customers have never bought ticket from the machine, and afaik have never got a fine in several years, I would assume that german highway laws are similar. the traffic wardens do pay attention to cars abandoned in the hatched area at the ends of the street, but most of those tend to be a quick 30s to post a letter (if they haven’t just double parked right by the letterbox), or to get 50€ out of the ATM.

    Sandwich
    Full Member

    Yep, you could have behaved like an adult but you showed them

    You’re new here aren’t you? That sort of behaviour has no place on STW.

    yunki
    Free Member

    you could have behaved like an adult blah blah blah

    Your mum could have behaved like an adult

    globalti
    Free Member

    Neighbourly good relations are more important than getting upset over parking. Very occasionally I have come home and found visitors to my neighbour’s house blocking my drive. I park outside, go in for my supper them move the car in later when they’ve gone. If they see me they are usually very apologetic but I just smile and wave it off. Nothing hard about that.

    hels
    Free Member

    My street is a bit like that – not much parking, near the town, one way etc. And for some reason a lot of people who can’t reverse park, and must circle the block until a double space frees up, so they can park across two spaces.

    I know it is petty but I am surprised how annoyed this makes me. How hard is it to back to the end of the space – it’s a straight line !! Shouldn’t be allowed to drive.

    A wee red car did this the other day, then the car behind moved, so did the car in front. So I parked right on their bumper and a neighbour got the idea and parked them in at the front !! Small victories. Very very petty small victories.

    yunki
    Free Member

    I understand the need to be a good neighbour, and would be happy to shrug it off if it wouldn’t involve me adding an hour or two to my day as me and my three year old wander back and forth to a parking space across town

    aracer
    Free Member

    Yours did when I was last round 😉

    edlong
    Free Member

    I understand the need to be a good neighbour, and would be happy to shrug it off if it wouldn’t involve me adding an hour or two to my day as me and my three year old wander back and forth to a parking space across town popping next door and asking the decorators if they could move their van

    Talking to people? Radical idea, I know, but might be slightly easier. Also potentially quicker than writing an ‘amusing’ note for them?

    brakes
    Free Member

    let their tyres down and leave a note saying you’ve just borrowed it for a minute and that you’re in number 20 if they want it back. when they knock on the door burp/ fart in their face. BOOM.

    thestabiliser
    Free Member

    I understand the need to be a good neighbour, and would be happy to shrug it off if it wouldn’t involve me adding an hour or two to my day as me and my three year old wander back and forth to a parking space across town in the driving sleet, with only rags on our feet, fighting impossible odds against ogres and the wicked witches of fate, clinging to each others pale, pathetic shivering bodies while fortune casts a steely, indifferent eye over out plight, hoping against hope that one day, one glorious sunlit morn that the builders will have moved their van.

    yunki
    Free Member

    😀

    D0NK
    Full Member

    Highway says “Do not” not “Must not”

    see there’s me making assumptions again, thought do not meant, erm, don’t do it, I keep forgetting that whenever cars are involved it’s only simon says must not that actually matters. Anything else such as do not or should not or please refrain means go right ahead we don’t mind.

    Car centric bollocks.

    BTW bit of googling says brighton and hove will ticket you for it(contravention 27), so I assume there’s some legislation for it. I dunno if it’s a UK wide thing or only certain councils, IANAL so you’d have to speak to one of them for UK law but I’d have thought wheaton’s law covers this.

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    I believe it is OK to park in front of a garage/driveway as long as it’s empty but it’s illegal to stop someone from accessing the public highway from their drive/garage. Anyone else heard of this?

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 44 total)

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