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.

This sounds good

How am I unreasonable for wanting to use my own actual drive in order for my disabled son to walk safely from the car in to the house? Seriously? 🥴 Just because I bought a house by a school doesn’t mean I should put up with stuff like this.

I think when she parks there would be a really good time to pressure wash your driveway.

I have literally written in my post that they walk to the school gates and leave their vehicle unattended.

Contact your local councillor and ask them to put a solid white line across your driveway, it should at least act as a deterrent.

I also live opposite a school. There is a solid white line on the road across the dropped kerb providing access to my drive. Some people think this marks it as a dedicated parking space and carefully park exactly across my drive in the space marked by the white line.

The Highway Code is like GCSE maths: it's stuff the majority of people deliberately forget the moment they have passed the relevant test/exam and then refuse to engage with for the rest of their lives.

And YANBU

Who rattled your cage....Where is this going to get you, the poster is asking for some constructive help and not people being nasty. I am so sorry my suggestions are not up to your high standards. At least I am making suggestions

I shall whip my hide in penitence and sit on the naughty step for incurring your wrath. There....happy now? Have a lovely, chilled and relaxed night x

Very sticky A4 label that says “Please do not park in front of my drive as I require access for my disabled child” applied to windscreen

When you leave to pick your son up tomorrow accidentally drop some fine particles of already broken glass and screws and as you won't have time to sweep up - hey presto!

Half joking!!

As others have said, take photos, contact school each and every time and invite the HT to meet you at your drive at the time to witness it themselves. If that doesn't stop the parent contact governors.

whats the NHS going to do about it? do you mean 101? To be fair for the length of time the car is parked there, because i assume its drop off and pick up time, its unlikely you will be able to get the police to come and get the car moved .. speak to the school, leave a note on the car, even steal a road cone and put it out?

Take a photo of any frequent offenders and send to school plus leave a note stating that you access at x time due to your child's disability, some people have a conscience. You can get a no parking line put in but that will mean you can't (or your guests) park there

Can you park your car so you block your own drive? At least it will stop her from doing it.

also... if you child is disabled and you have a blue badge, then contact the council and they can put either a solid line or a no parking diabled access box outside your drive?

Someone kept doing this to my pal, she'd leave her car blocking the drive for a good 45 min every day so she could go and natter at the school gates. After pleas to stop fell on deaf ears, pal wrapped her car with an entire industrial size roll of cling film.

I'm not actually recommending you do that, definitely just talk to the school, but I was laughing so hard I nearly suffocated watching this fuming school mum stomping round and round her car unwinding it all again huffing and puffing like a buffalo.

Parking is not a police matter unfortunately as it is a civil issue. So your local PCSO won't do much. You need tonsoeak to the local council's enforcement team. Equally the school has no pwer as it is not happening on their property. All they can do is send an email to parents reminding them to be considerate.

The issue is, there is no offence in parking over an unoccupied driveway.

You might be best to explain to the local council the issue and ask them if they cam install a H bar across your driveway as this advises drivers that they should not block it.

How impactful it would be is another matter but it would probably give the enforcement team more power to act.

Thank you everybody for the responses. I was completely expecting responses of ‘well what did you expect?’ But glad I only got one of them! 😅 Thank you for the funny responses too, they’ve really cheered me up after a shitty day.

Actually blocking the driveway or just making it difficult to get out? Is she across the dropped curb? Parking around schools is a nightmare and the neighbours sometimes get a bit shirty with parking at my kids school but we’re all parked legally, although I get it’s annoying to have the road full of cars and it’s a bit awkward to manoeuvre out.

Yep such a helpful suggestion, a bollard on the road. 😆

Your child may be eligible for a blue badge, and with this you could request a disabled bag outside your house. They aren't exclusive to you so there's a chance other disabled school families might use it, but I expect she'd be less likely to use it compared to across the drive

The problem with deterring one clown, is there is always another to take their place ... yes an individual may only be there for "a moment" but a succession of "moments" can make 24 hours in a day.

Leave cones in front of your drive. It pisses me off on our road because I'm a teacher and can't park because people put the cones way BEYOND their drives but it definitely works.

I live right by a school and in fairness no one has ever blocked me in but sometimes they are opposite, and due to the tight road it's tricky getting out. However my neighbours house is at a slightly different angle from mine and if someone parks opposite they don't have enough to swing around. They put up cones, just two outside the house and it stopped except for one ahole who parked between the cones. One of us went out to 'politely' ask them to move every single time, a few of us did it. The woman was rude or just said yeah yeah whatever but kept doing it. We also made sure the cones were closer so she couldn't park between them. Then one day a neighbour stood beside the car with her phone taking a video as ahole tried to park while another waved them on. Eventually the message was taken and no one does it now. This was in conjunction with regular email reminders from the school, some specifying the name of our cul de sac (at our request). We made sure to add we had no issue with people parking just to be clear of drives etc. The school were co operative but didn't have wardens as such. It's a small school and technically our address is in a different place but due to a pedestrian short cut it's a good place to park.

Yup, completely blocking entire driveway! 😩 It is also a dropped down curb too! Not too sure what car it is she’s got as I’m not exactly clued up on makes of cars etc but it’s a definite 7 seater so not small either.

I have on one occasion had something similar happen to me. So I parked parallel to them, as close to the driver's door as I could possibly get, and half blocking the road. Cars could squeeze past, but there was no way the driver could get their car out.

I then went indoors and waited.
😂

Parking is not a police matter unfortunately as it is a civil issue.

Like pronouns 😀

If the OP misgendered the CF parker, they'd have a task force on it before you can say "moi ?"