Can't Park on my own Drive!!

[TwinkleTwinkleLittleCat]

Let me set the scene, we are a 2 car family, car parking on the street is awful. One side of the road is mainly double yellow lines and most houses have 2 or 3 cars.
We are terraced houses but each have a front driveway and garden.
Half our driveway has a dropped kerb so one car can easily get on the drive.
The other car (mine) can also fit in the front, but I use rubber ramps to get up the kerb. Have done this for 20 years .
Today I had a letter from the council telling me I should not park on my own drive as I am damaging the kerb every time I go over it, and the ramps cannot be used as they might harm another vehicle.
I'm fuming!

I've got a proper dropped kerb all along my driveway except for one piece of kerb. I'm forever getting blocked in or out of my drive as people use the one undropped kerb as an excuse to park, even though they're what, less than a metre long? I applied to have it extended and was quoted £2600, and that was before covid & COL times. I'd just manoeuvre if I was you!

If that was the case, the council would have done something about the bloody great HGV that parks on the pavement (not a dropped kerb) every single day.

Money making scheme from the council IMO, the tarmac pavement is replaced with the exact same spec as what they have dug up so the dropped kerb may be strengthened but the tarmac/asphalt that they dig out & re lay certainly isn’t.

Sounds about right. They probably have a completely unnecessary tick-box procedure that they have to follow to ensure that they can sign it off as safe - partly to justify the very high price that they charge.

Councils are so risk-averse, there's no way they would run the risk of being sued if anybody (even if illegally) parks up on a supposedly-weak pavement and comes a cropper.

They have to (charge a hefty fee to) consult their records, just to check that the piece of pavement in question isn't constructed of foam or marshmallows. It categorically never will be, of course; but 'it's always better to be safe than sorry', eh?

The highway act of 1980 also states that highways should be safe and free from flood😆
The size of the potholes round here could double up as a swimming pool! I had to have my car suspension mended due to pot holes a few years back. The holes are still here, they get patched up and then when the frost or rain come they disintegrate again. How is that safe?!

Do you tell people off for parking in front of your car where there is no dropped kerb? Then no wonder people are complaining. They only have to not park in front of the drop kerb

So the man across the road usually parks blocking your car from getting out of your non drive if you don't use the drop kerb?

How is that obstructing pedestrians?

Someone was doing that near where I live. He also removed a street sign that was outside his house that blocked access to the other half of his front garden. He just sawed it off! The council put the sign back and obviously told him to stop driving up the kerb.

There are rules, you've got away with it for ages, apply (and pay) for a dropped kerb

@emmag1925 I didn't say anywhere that it was blocking pedestrians!!
I said that all the streets have these weeds growing in the kerbs, blocking the drains. Nothing to do with pedestrians.

@emmag1925 no I don't tell people off for parking outside my house. If you read the thread I said the gentleman across the road parks outside my house which is fine. That's why I park in my garden so there is more space on the road. When he parks outside my house nobody is blocked in or out. I don't care who parks outside my house. Space is limited so that's why I park on my garden to make street space for others!

Regarding strengthening the pavement, round here they use some loose rubble for the base for the pavement and the drop kerbs/crossover areas they use a bound layer with larger stones in it.
So it is a higher spec for the crossover because they anticipate the cars driving over it.

@TwinkleTwinkleLittleCat I'm not sure if you'll remember this from the Highway Code but when using a driveway you are supposed to reverse in, so that you can drive out.

201
Do not reverse from a side road into a main road. When using a driveway, reverse in and drive out if you can.

I know it says "if you can" better to always try as it's so much safer to drive out.

None of which has any relevance whatsoever.

You’ve broken the law, the council have caught you. Your reaction should be ‘well I’ve had a good run’ and not a litany of excuses on why you should be allowed to get away with it.

They won’t come along and say ‘oh we’ll let her off because there’s a pothole over there’. Getting yourself annoyed about everything else is pointless. Either pay for the drop or stop using it.
I imagine a council employee has been out for something else, maybe a neighbour is paying for a drop kerb and they’ve been out to inspect, they have seen all the DIY jobs you and your neighbours have out and you’ve all got letters.

Stop making out like you’re doing it as a good deed to save space for everyone else 🤣 You just want to park right in front of your house and make things easier for yourself.

Youre damaging the pavement and you’ve been caught so stop doing it!

@HermioneKipper
I have been out speaking to the gentleman who parks outside my house, said to him I will now probably try and park there rather than on my garden and told him why. His face fell and said he understood but now he would have to park in the next street.
I jokingly said he could park in my garden😀 he is such a lovely old man he said he's bewildered about it all.
As from today I'm parking in the street unless DH is not at home and I will use the drive

I'm sure you told him that if you're car isn't there that he can park outside your house as he pleases (although I imagine you told him to ensure he doesn't).

OP you are playing ball now. write to them telling them you have removed the ramps and will instead only access the drive via your dropped
curb.

then report every pothole on your road. each week.

email the council to sort the weeds out in the gutter - explain they are too big for you to clear and that they are blocking drains and causing an issue.

if they don't reply resend in two weeks and so on. If my boss sends me an email more than once he puts "first resend" in the subject line and it bolts me to do something.

just keep doing as you need to and hold the council accountable for road maintenance

Because dropped kerbs are reinforced and designed for cars to drive over.

@Sunshineboo
Good idea😊 Although I know the potholes are continuously reported , they sometimes get a white ring drawn around them and that's it.

You and your neighbours are all bewildered by the fact you can’t drive up the pavement 🙄

Seriously?!

A bit worrying you’re all drivers and have no clue about the rules of the road.

Why did you buy the rubber ramps if it’s absolutely fine to drive up the kerb? Why do you think it’s there?!

Because they reconstruct the drop kerb part of the pavement to make it stronger.

@HermioneKipper bought the rubber ramps to make it easier to get up the kerb, to save damaging my tyres 😆
Same reason that everyone else around here bought ramps I guess.

Yes and?

Ignorance is no excuse.

Saying that you've done it for years isn't an excuse. Nor is saying the neighbours are worse. Nor the road is damaged elsewhere and not maintained properly.

Just get permission and get it done properly!

I still don't get how the chap across the road can currently park in front of yours and not block you in or out of parking where you have been; but now you're going to be parking adjacent to the bit of pavement that you've been using as an access, he can't?

@TwinkleTwinkleLittleCat why can’t you both park on the driveway using the dropped kerb abd reverse out one as you need to?