It’s a parking one…

[MegsLevante]

Builders have blocked off 6 free parking areas on our road with bollards. This is a public road and those spaces are used by the residents because not everyone has a drive.

There has been a derelict house on the road for ages. One of the parking spaces is in front of this house but the other 5 aren’t. The house has been sold recently (no idea who to) and they have builders in. These builders have put bollards (last week) and now traffic lights on to block off these spaces.

They have also left these bollards and traffic lights in place over the weekend when they aren’t doing any work.

Are they allowed to do this on a public road? If they’ve got traffic lights, have they got the council involved, or can anyone put up traffic lights? Who do we complain to?

I don’t think you’ve read my posts. I accept that there is a council permit in place from 24th to 28th March (that could be extended) and that this is for gas works to the house.

During the periods that there is no permit in place, a building company (ie a company that isn’t doing gas works) does not have the right to block off the road.

Agree, the new owners will have nothing to do with timing of utility services, maybe they don’t even know timings themselves and are as surprised as you? Wouldn’t surprise me.

Can you describe the bollards put out by the builders (as opposed to anything out out by any of the the utility services)? Have they been fixed in place?

You’re blaming the new owners for something other people are doing. Give them a chance…

Sorry but it’s not your new neighbours fault. If its gas works then it is out with any of your neighbours control, even the new neighbours. Our road has been closed for 4 weeks due to gas works. It was closed the week before the gas works started. It’s annoying and makes getting to our house very difficult but the works need done.
Sorry to say but seems like the spaces are public. Yes they might be in front of the houses but if they have no deeds to them as in they are not part of their house and have their house numbers on them then they are open to the public and open to be blocked off. Yes it’s annoying if you usually park there but anyone can park there for any period of time I guess, if they have an appropriate permit, and there’s nothing you’d be able to do about it.
They have been given permission to carrh out the work from those dates, this is put online so you can see a reason why there might be a sudden influx of noise or diggers etc.They can prepare the area beforehand. They have obviously felt it was necessary to block the spaces to prevent anyone from parking and leaving their car whilst they go on holiday etc which would prohibit any work being done.

I meant traffic cones, not bollards.

As I have said (several times) we accept that there is council permission in place for the road to be blocked during the time that a gas contractor is working on the supply to the house.

What we don’t accept is the building company (not the gas contractor) putting traffic cones down during the time period when there are no statutory works being done, in order to reserve 6 parking spaces on a public road for their own personal use.

If the residents in the 5 other houses bought some traffic cones to reserve the space outside their houses for their own personal use, would that be ok?

I get it's frustrating. And possibly disruptive. But you seem determined to take this personally and create a tense relationship with the new owners of the derelict house before you've even met them.

It's not their fault.

Would you rather the house remains derelict?

Where else do you expect the six work vehicles to park?

Maybe, for your own blood pressure's sake, you could accept that it's annoying and temporary and look forward to having new neighbours to get to know and hopefully be good friends with.

If the new owners haven't moved in they may not even be aware of the disruption.
However, if the house is truly derelict there may well be a safety issue with the supply to the house. Better to have a week of mild disruption than a serious accident.
Just bare in mind that the builders working on the house will most likely be a completely separate team to the guys working on the gas supply, as that would need to be specialist contractors.

Ok, when a derelict house is being renovated there is lots of work to be done. One part of this, in this particular case, seems to be altering the gas supply to the house. Cadent have a permit from 24th - 28th March to do this gas work.

Or are you saying that other building work such as removing an old kitchen and bathroom are being done by a public authority in a privately owned house?

Sorry op but a derelict house is being renovated. Be prepared for lots of workers vans being parked on the road or in the spaces. Lorrys and trucks may appear too for a short period of time. They are all entitled to park in the public spaces. Yes it’s annoying if they block them in advance but it’s a public road so I am unsure of who can stop them from doing this. Please don’t blame the new neighbours as they probably are not aware of the trouble being caused and won’t necessarily know that all the neighbours seem very attached to the public spaces.

Where do you expect the residents to park while this work is ongoing?

There aren’t 6 work vehicles, there are 3 work vehicles taking up 6 spaces.

Renovating a completely derelict house takes months, not a week.

As I’ve already mentioned, we have a neighbours WhatsApp group and everyone is pissed off about this.

Why not stop round when the builders are there and politely say that if they want those spots reserved, they need to apply for a proper parking suspension? Just tell them that a lot of residents rely on these spaces for parking and if you don't have an official suspension, people are likely to move the cones. It's easy enough to say that firmly but politely. I'm in London and the councils do that all the time for building works. They will get some spaces, possibly for the duration of the building works, but they're unlikely to get six. Everyone's going to have to compromise, unfortunately. And, as I pointed out earlier, turning a derelict house on your road into a non-derelict house is ultimately good for your property values.

Well I can well understand why you and your neighbours are hacked off OP. It's not on for anyone to use cones to bagsie parking spaces on a public highway. I don't think any of us would object for a removal van or hearse, but for several builder's vans for their convenience?

It's not only utility companies who put in temporary traffic lights either. Private contractors can apply for them, e.g. for tree work or replacing mains connections, connecting new housing to sewerage, etc.

Fwiw, the owners of the house should have contacted the neighbours to inform them of the works. It's considerate and engenders goodwill. Instead they've got everyone's backs up.

I'd speak to the contractors and ask what work they are doing and how long they will be taking.
Our permit never actually got extended but it was originally for 5 days, and it was closed for a month. They literally are a law unto themselves

So is the hole and lights still there?

Are you complaining about the few days earlier, or the ongoing situation?

They don't have the right. However, if there's heavy work to be done, they do need to ensure access. At times, not having kept those spaces will mean the street could be completely blocked while a works vehicle is in place.

It's in all your interests to ensure the work is done as fast as possible and minimise the disruption. You don't want the lorries and vans reversing up and down the street, squeezing in and out of existing spaces, and blocking the road completely at times.
Because they will.

Timeline:

Friday 17th March - traffic cones appear outside a row of 6 terraced houses, blocking off 6 parking spaces on a public road.
Monday 20th March - traffic cones are moved and 3 vans (name of building company on the side of 1 van) are parked there. Obvious work going on inside a derelict house. Skip in the garden with what look like old fashioned kitchen cupboards in them. Vans leave late afternoon and traffic cones are on the road overnight.

Tuesday 21st March - 3 vans parked on the road during the day and obvious work going on again, they leave late afternoon again and the traffic cones are there overnight. The same thing happens on Wednesday 22nd.
Thursday 23rd March - traffic lights and signs appear sometime in the afternoon.
Friday 24th March - hole appears outside front of house
Saturday 25th / Sunday 26th March - traffic lights and hole (cordoned off) are there over the weekend.
Monday 27th March - find out that Cadent (gas contractor) have a council permit to block off one side of the road from 24th -28th March to carry out gas supply works to the house (hence the hole and traffic lights)

The house is obviously being renovated and whilst we understand that the council have given Cadent a permit to block the parking spaces outside the row of all 6 terraces while they conduct gas work, no permit seems to have been issued to a building company (not the same company as Cadent) to block off all 6 parking spaces whilst they conduct building work.

The house in question is at the end of a row of 6 terraces and has a side parking space, leading to the quite large back garden. The skip is in this side parking space.

Once the gas works are completed there will be a lot more work to be done by this building company to renovate the house. We are concerned that they have decided that all 6 parking spaces belong to them for the duration of this work (which could be months). Personally I think that leaving traffic cones there to reserve parking over a weekend, when they weren’t even in there doing any work, is really cheeky.

It’s annoying, we know… but it needs doing. I feel sorry for your new neighbours, all this WhatsApp rage before they even move in! Honestly OP, find something else to spend your energy on, this isn’t worth stressing over

Op your reaction is over the top and will make you ill, surely the renovation of that house will make your environment nicer and increase property values.

Yes it’s annoying to have spaces taken up by builders but have you never had workmen doing jobs on your house taking up space with their vans?

There’s no rage. We are just concerned that they have already shown quite clearly, that they intend to be inconsiderate neighbours. It’s a tightly knit neighbourhood and we are usually welcoming to new comers.

You don’t think it would have been considerate of them to let us know that they were intending on starting an extensive renovation and it could cause disruption? As that’s how we usually do things in our neighbourhood - if someone is going to be having some building work done (or anything that could cause disruption) they usually post it in the group WhatsApp to let everyone know.

You sound completely unhinged and borderline obsessed. They coned off a few space for a few days, so what. If you are so convinced of your righteousness why don’t you and the rest of your WhatsApp army just move the cones and park there.

Just fyi, in case you need this information in the future, renovating a derelict house takes months not days.

Your weird little WhatsApp chat is not some official body that needs to be notified. It sounds like you aren’t even a neighbour just live in the vicinity. It would be really odd of them to send letters to the whole
street laying out their plans

No shit Sherlock, but the cones haven’t been there for months have they, so you are talking absolute bollocks and making wild assumptions about the future.

You don’t think a note saying something along the lines of “we’ve just bought number x on z road, it’s been empty for some years and we intend to renovate it fully. We appreciate there may be some disruption to neighbours during the several months this renovation is likely to take but here are our contact details, please let us know if there are any issues”.

Given your attitude on this thread I think they have had a narrow escape in not giving you and the other WhatsApp warriors their contact details. I can’t imagine you would give them a moments peace. No doubt you would have messaged them this morning demanding to know at what time the cones would be removed or some other such nonsense

The builders that have been employed to renovate the house have showed exactly how they intend to behave for the next few months by their behaviour so far.