Parking in rural areas

[baabara]

If you're going for a walk in the countryside and drive to the destination, where would you usually park?

Are you aware there may be legal parking restrictions within rural areas?

A designated car park or lay-by.
Or, on a side road potentially if walking from a village or small town.

Yes, of course.

I would usually look on a map to find a car park before setting off. Yes, aware that there may be parking restrictions.

Lol, round here it's park in any gateway you can get! So annoying for my friend whose back gate goes onto a field track at the end of which is a gate onto the road. Many times she can't get the correct vehicle out for the task in hand for a few hours (tractor, lorry, pickup & trailer etc) till they've returned and moved. My other friend often takes her horse out in a lorry then can't get back home due to on the verge parking both sides

Exactly @Ariela an absolute pain, especially for our hard working Farmers.

When you say 'designated layby' @CarpetKnees, what would that look like?

Would you consider parking elsewhere if you thought the parking charges were too high? @MadridMadridMadrid

Are you wanting people to fill in your survey for you, OP?

What survey? @dontpunchtheplasticgorilla, there is no survey. I'm a landowner not a student.

’rural areas’ is such a broad definition

perhaps you could be a bit more specific

what are you looking for out of this thread

parking charges? Most rural areas I can think of don’t charge for parking and don’t have parking issues

When you say 'designated layby' , what would that look like?

I'm not sure how I can help you here, if you don't know what a layby, with a 'P' for parking in it, looks like

Agree.

Where I live is so rural there are no designated car parks. Just fields. No laybys!

Do NOT park in a farmer's gateway, they need access to the fields. And no, on our tiny lanes which are 'passing places only' do NOT think a passing place is a kink in the road where you can put your car!!

However, it's OK to pull up of the verge, if out walking just leave your car out of the way on the grass verge, there are no penalties for doing so and it's so safe round here, everything will be fine until you come back.

Do NOT park in a farmer's gateway, they need access to the fields. And no, on our tiny lanes which are 'passing places only' do NOT think a passing place is a kink in the road where you can put your car!!

@OlderYearsIsBest I think has hit the nail on the head.

The National Trust, English Heritage, large country estates, Forestry Commission and moors/heathland/coast can all have car parks...

If a car park was not available , I would park somewhere sensible - where it would not block access ( gates) or impede traffic ( passing places , blind bends) or harm the land ( so not on a grass verge when it’s wet )

if the area was too full I would go somewhere else but I am happy to add a couple of hours to a walk if needs be

it’s not usually difficult

Yes I will try and find somewhere that's free if paid car parks are too expensive, also are often full.

However I always park legally and never I field entrances, passing places, driveways or on narrow roads. I also generally avoid directly outside people's houses if it looks like the only parking available to residents.

I tend to look on OS and Google maps and find designated parking areas off the beaten track that are free.

Could you be clearer about what you are asking and the point you are trying to make?

I live rurally. A car park or in the village or anywhere that says P on OS maps. I wouldn’t park in a layby. They are passing places, not car parks. Unless it’s like an obvious parking area on the side of the road. We live in a national park though, so I recognise people can be absolute morons about parking. Don’t get me started on people who can’t drive their big Range Rovers on single lane roads and reverse into a layby to let someone pass. 🙄

Example:

www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn52zez15rko

Checking uk gov website - parking in a lay-by ( off street parking area or bays ) isn’t just legal , it’s preferred

there can be local bylaws and overnight parking in particular is often covered by additional restrictions

I'm simply trying to understand why people ignore clear signage. We have an issue with people regularly parking illegally (as well as trespass). Education on the countryside code seems to be non existent these days sadly.

Passing places are not lay-bys

passing places exist on single track roads. Usually labelled as such

laybys exist on all sorts of roads including dual carriageways.and are for people to park up for various reasons

parking roadside and obstructing traffic is just dumb - happens a lot in wales as well. Pathetic really.

interesting to me is that I have seen the Derbyshire problem - we drove a few miles away to park as we could easily see it was wrong

Come on - everyone knows you shouldn’t park in a way to stop emergency services getting through

tbey dont need educating they need their cars taken off them and squashed

I assume it's the same people in urban areas who seem to think they can park on double yellows, school keep clear markings, business entrances and across dropped kerbs as long as they put their hazard lights on

Hazard lights are clearly optional on double yellow

This thread reminds me of a post on our local area Facebook page a couple of years ago by an irate farmer:

"Would whoever owns this vehicle <photo provided> please move it out of the field gateway where you've left it, because we want to harvest our onions."

We're seriously considering doing something similar! @BeNiceWhenItsFinished.

A layby isnt a passing place