Realistically can anything be done to stop parents parking across driveway?

[Lefmry]

I live on the same street as a school. Every single day someone blocks our driveway and I’m at a point now where I’m getting super fed up of it! 😩 It is mostly the same woman, who on multiple occasions has been asked to stop but it’s like it falls on deaf ears and she feels entitled somehow to still park there.

I wouldn’t actually mind but my eldest has severe additional needs and will NOT walk any distance from the car to the house so it’s super important we are parked on the drive, which isn’t possible when she (or someone else) has swanned off to stand at the school gates to wait for her child. I mean, not like I need an excuse really, it’s my drive and I should be able to use it. The time the drive is blocked is ALWAYS when I’m getting back from picking up my son from school.

Realistically if I were to go in to the school with number plates, especially this one woman, is there anything they can do? Or anything anybody else can do? Sorry I know there’s worse problems to have but I’ve just had a baby 4 weeks a go, have a 20 month old, along with my eldest with ASD, I am trying my damn hardest every day and sick of arseholes making life even harder.

Nothing can be done. It's legal. You just have to move. Life will be calmer and easier. No need to start the vandalism and vendettas.

The reason is inconsiderate parking/access issues are the norm when pick up/drop offs occur daily (as demonstrated here by many posts). Therefore the value of the property is discounted as these issues are annoying. Whilst house prices near popular schools do indeed increase those properties situated immediately adjacent to drop off/pick up zones will be lower than say those of similar properties say 2 streets behind which are still close to the school but far enough away from noise/traffic issues.

I have the same problem. Pick my DC up from school. By the time I get back 20 minutes later primary next door is picking out and I can't get back into my drive. I gave dropped kerb and the yellow zig zags. People don't give a shit.
School begs the parents to be considerate but they can't be arsed to use a car park 1 minute walk away
Drives me insane. There is a new parent this year who parks across from my drive over someone else dropped kerb so I can't swing my car in or reverse. Just avoids eye contact. PCSO comes and is so visible no I've died it for that day but it's back to normal the day after.

Buy a couple of traffic cones and put them there. I bet they wouldn’t get out of their car to move them.

I have sympathy for those who accidentally find themselves in this situation but honestly they are not the majority. The majority of people move into these situations eyes wide open and then moan. The same with rights of way past properties. If these things will wind you up to the extent (shown here) you’d engage in criminal behaviour eg destruction of property etc or worse nails in tyres (potentially causing a RTA) then when you’re buying/renting think VERY carefully about the realities. It’s astonishing how most people don’t think.

This. Make it really inconvenient for her. What a selfish person!

Absolute bollocks. Houses next to good schools are often more expensive!

And anyway, parking over drives is just wrong.

Contact the school with photos of the car. Our primary school contacted the police and got them to come out for a few mornings to talk to parents about their shit parking.

You seem confused about where the line is between reasonable and unreasonable behaviour.

If you buy near a school you should expect parking to be busy around pick up time. That doesn't mean it's ok for people to park over driveways and be inconsiderate. And it doesn't mean property owners should act like utter doormats and allow these entitled twats to walk all over them.

OP, I would video her when she leaves/goes back to the car and make sure she sees you do it. That might stop it in itself. If not, I'd send it to the school headteacher in the first instance, with a polite request that they ask the parent to stop.

For very oversubscribed schools where two streets away could put you at risk of not getting in if there is no sibling link.
You also have no idea if the OP paid a discounted price her house, paid over the odds for it or even if the OP owns the house at all.

But in any case, the point is that dropping/collecting for school is still not an excuse for terrible parking.
There's a reason for quite a lot of selfish or thoughtless human behaviour but it still doesn't make that behaviour excusable or something that other people should have to tolerate.

I am still tickled by your red book flex, though.

This is not the case where I live.
House 2 doors from the school gates was under offer within a week for £50,000 over the asking price. It was actually more than the same style house round the corner.
Any house in our street gets sold within days.

You pay more round here for a house in one of the streets around the local schools as weekends and school holidays there is no traffic so very quiet.
Same as the town I’m originally from, houses get snapped up straight away beside the schools.

Our school used to send out emails asking people not to park in front of drives.

Its a great pity that there isnt some sort of 'fit and proper' test to getting a driving licence and that parking offences dont attract 'points'

That might improve things a bit

I'd never park across someone's drive. Of course it's not ok. Just because some idiots do it doesn't make it ok. It's the people who do this who are wrong, not people who live near a school.

Trouble is, if you have a dropped kerb and white line, the council will tow any car that blocks you in, but not out.
However, can be a deterrent

Just reverse back as hard as you can into someone’s car, no one will do it again. And as an added bonus all the kids walking past will whisper “that’s that crazy woman’s house” and avoid your door on Halloween. Fixed it.

Definitely contact the school. She is one CF.

My hometown has a harvest festival every year & we lived across the street from the park where they celebrated.
The traffic was obnoxious & CF people started parking on our drive — politeness didn’t work, so my dad’s friend the tow truck guy towed them to his car yard outside of town.
The charge I think was $150 back then and WOW they were mad. They were mad that their cars got towed for illegally parking in our drive.
It was pretty funny watching them look at our drive like, “I could’ve sworn my car was right here” with that puzzled look on their faces. It’s still funny thinking back.
Your school mum probably wouldn’t park in your drive again considering today’s tow fees.
I’m in California though. I don’t know anything about school mums or parking on drives in the UK. It was just a thought.

Dont do this. You can get done for criminal damage.

Contact your local authority over this, you have already warned this woman and she chose to ignore it, its about time she faced consequences.

Your LA ( council) will need a log of the number of times this has occured and what the outcome was including dates and times, they will treat this as evidence and they will also need the registration number of the vehicle concerned, photos would be good evidence too.

Like the OP said in a previous post, you have a child with special needs so this which will also impact the outcome.

I think several bins in the road and "accidentally" spilling non-damaging food stuff is the best way to go. It's hard for someone with a disabled kid, after all. Only to be expected that you might "drop the odd ball".

It doesn't matter who is wrong or right, it's more of a why make yourself stressed situation. It's shit that idiots park across drives. Sadly they can't be stopped. The way to make this pain go away is to move. Mental health and quality of life first

I prefer escalate to deescalate and would talk to the individual in the first instance.

If she comes out swinging, stay calm and simply reply that you will therefore be forced to take countermeasures.

Then deploy one of the suggestions given by other posters, climbing the escalation ladder as you go.

It may put them off?

Probably an estate agent. Basically a wanker