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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to leave a note on this woman's car?

56 replies

Cheddacheese · 21/10/2010 13:44

I know these types of threads are done to death but I honestly want to know whether I need to chill out over this or do something...

A woman parks outside our house everyday around 8am and walks down a line path opposite to the railway station (takes about 10 mins). It peeves me because my partner parks where she does but he leaves for work at 6am and returns at 4.30pm and her car is still there. We have two houses opposite full of students who have a car each and so parking between residents is a nightmare already.

I found out the other day she only blardy lives a 2 minute walk round the corner !! Even today she must of spent more time defrosting her car to drive it 2 secs round the corner !!

Anyway, should I leave a polite note or putabigscratchdownthesideofhercar just make my peace with it?

OP posts:
ccpccp · 21/10/2010 14:59

Couple of parking cones hastily removed when shes parked somewhere else should do the trick.

Mind you - if it wasnt her parking there then you would have someone else doing it. They are dodging the station parking charges.

If you complain to the council enough, they will double yellow the surrounding streets, and make parking residential. Station users parking in side streets is a well known problem.

BrainMash · 21/10/2010 15:03

I sympathise - had the same trouble for years. Unfortunately if she has road tax then she can park where she likes. I personally wouldn't say anything as it could make things worse.

I like the idea of parking cones Grin That's what that woman on Bread used to do!

Balsam · 21/10/2010 15:08

YABU - she can park where she likes, annoying as it is for you. I wouldn't bother leaving a note, as you really have don't have a leg to stand on and you could just piss her off and escalate things.

If it's really that much of an irritant to your everyday life, why don't you get the neighbours on board and approach the council to make your street permit parking. But then, you still wouldn't be guaranteed a spot outside your house.

I knew someone who lived on street where people wanted to park outside their own house, even though it wasn't a controlled zone - it escalated into slashed tyres and the police/council had to write to everyone to calm it all down.

mrsoliverramsay · 21/10/2010 15:09

Our street was like this. People parked to use the train station and the street was completly full of cars during trhe week. It is an estate so was a complete nightmare. A few complained to the council and they sent a petition round. It has now got restricted parking and the street is clear.

Oscalito · 21/10/2010 15:53

If she really is just a two minute walk about then she's being lazy. I'd leave a note explaining that the street is already squeezed for residents parking and if possible could she walk to the station. She may or may not take any notice but at this stage she has no idea how annoying she's being. Some people don't care but if it was me I'd stop doing it for the sake of peace (particularly as it's just round the corner, what a weirdo!)

PigletJohn · 21/10/2010 15:58

it's a public road so if you manage to persuade her to stop, someone else will start.

My road is quite narrow, and we used to get lots of commuter parking. The council took a residents opinion survey, and painted the road with bays where parking was only allowed for an hour during the day. No use to commuters so they stopped, and are no doubt parking somwehere else.

Original poster
Cheddacheese · 21/10/2010 16:18

Yes Oscalito, before I found out she only lives round the corner it was just frustrating.

Now I know just how close she lives, I can't understand why she even needs to start her car up it is mind boggling close?? it has rattled me....

OP posts:
DomesticG0ddess · 21/10/2010 16:20

All the people suggesting you leave a note is making me laugh - if she is not parking there, someone else will! When I lived in London we were quite close to the tube; there was a parking restriction of just one hour on our street from 9-10, which worked perfectly to stop people leaving their cars there all day - you need to persuade the council that you need this.

Original poster
Cheddacheese · 21/10/2010 16:21

Forgot to say, we are not the closest road to the line path (which leads to the station) without parking control and for as long as I can remember, no one else has used our street to park in and commute.

Thank you all for your thoughts Smile

OP posts:
DanceOnTheDarkSide · 21/10/2010 16:22

Leave her a christmas card Grin

Original poster
Cheddacheese · 21/10/2010 16:24

Ha ha - I might just - but what should I write ?? hmmm

OP posts:
DanceOnTheDarkSide · 21/10/2010 16:35

Merry Christmas, thanks for keeping "our space" warm during the daytime Grin

Original poster
Cheddacheese · 21/10/2010 16:36

He he love it !

OP posts:
comeandsitbythefire · 21/10/2010 16:40

YANBU to be frustrated at why someone would start their car up only to park it again around the corner! I have people park their vehicles across our ROAD because it is next a (lovely) fish n chip shop. Then they eat their fish n chips in the vehicle and watch me try to maneuver my car around them so I can get home. (They look at me with such venom because they think I'm there to buy fish n chips and might block THEM in! Also lol at madamdeathstare's comment.

SmellsLikeTeenSweat · 21/10/2010 16:44

The trouble is, she has no idea that she is winding you up. If you let her know, then the ball is in her court.

It wouldn't cross my mind that I might be 'taking someone's space' by parking outside a house. However, if I got a note asking me not to park there I would think you were barking. Better to obstruct the space with cones/another car until she gets the message & finds somewhere else permanently.

Poogles · 22/10/2010 10:56

I very politely (actually I wasn't polite at all!) told them I would park where I wanted and if they ever knocked on my door at that time again I would call the police for harassment (had been up all nght with baby). I then parked on the road outside my house for about 3 weeks and sometimes went out 'to get something out of my car' as he walked past!!

I think OP just has to put up with it TBH. If she doesn't park there it is likely someone else will. My biggest grip was when someone over hung my driveway making it difficult/impossible for me to get my car out. On a 1st offence I would put a note on the care nicely asking them not to block my drive. For repeated or major over hangs I used to phone the council who were more than happy to come and put a ticket onthe car for being outside of the white box!!!

(I think the commuters in our area were glad when my maternity leave was over and even happier when we moved!!)

ZombiePlan · 22/10/2010 11:05

Kungfupanda - surely if your road isn't adopted then it isn't a public highway, it's a private road, and therefore she can't park there? Do you have ownership of the road in any way? I wouldn't let strangers park on a private road that I owned, because I'd have to pay for the upkeep myself and would be liable if anything happened to them while using it...

borderslass · 22/10/2010 11:07

Couple of parking cones hastily removed when shes parked somewhere else should do the trick.

I've noticed a woman doing this every morning when taking DS to school.

stubbornhubby · 22/10/2010 11:17

you will have to somehow leave your own car on that spot for a week or two to break the habit.

perhaps when some friends go away you could borrow their car and park it on the spot.

It's like training a cat - move the litter tray somewhere else, and bar all access to where the litter tray used to be, it takes about a week for it to sink in.

KT1324 · 22/10/2010 11:20

If your house is that close to the station you could try getting a petition up from Neighbours and going to the council to try and get the street as residents parking only.. It would mean you would have to pay for a parking permit (in our coucil thats about £30 a year for 2 cars) but would be worth it.

Ring the council and see if they got any plans for your road as a lot of councils are making streets close to stations residents only to force commuters to park in car parks and obv make the council money!!

Or pinch some road work cones and when your husband leaves in the morning he could put up the cones and a men at work sign!!

PosieComeHereMyPreciousParker · 22/10/2010 11:24

Soemone used to do this to me when I had small children and was pregnant and so I left a really nice note, explaing that they had every right to park there but if they could park elsewhere at least a couple times of week that would be very helpful.....they did stop.

Nefret · 22/10/2010 11:30

I would write a polite note. I ahve had to do this a few times outside our house as there is enough room for two cars but only if they park properly and there was someone who kept parking right in the middle of the two spaces. I wrote a note and they stopped doing it.

I hope it works!

ayjayjay · 22/10/2010 11:31

I sympathise with you, this can be such a major cause of irritation.
Technically you have no right not to ask her not to park there but I agree with some of the other posters that it won't hurt to ask.

I have a similar situation outside my house. We have recently paid to have a dropped kerb added in front of the house so we can use our front garden as a drive. Next door also has a dropped kerb and driveway but between the two dropped kerbs there is a stretch of kerb which is almost but not quite big enough to park a small car. i.e. when the car is parked it covers an inch or so of either my or the neighbour dropped kerb. When this happens I can still just about get the car off the drive but it makes it tricky.

Technically I have no right to ask people not to park on this atretch of kerb but on the three or four occasions this has happened I have left a polite note asking them not to do it again and have left my house number and invited them to come and talk to me to discuss the matter further if they have a problem with this. No one has ever parked there twice!

LittleRedPumpkin · 22/10/2010 11:44

Are you sure she's not moving her car out of her space so her husband can park, something like that? There might not be as much available parking as it looks like.

I'm a bit on the other side with this as we have residents' parking round here, and none of it is directly outside our block of flats, so I am always having to park somewhere that's outside someone else's door and being told 'that's my space'. The people who live round here think everyone in the block of flats has a garage, but we don't. Have a nice word with her about why she parks there, but if you say 'that's my space', I promise you, she'll take great delight in parking there from then on.

notsocrates · 22/10/2010 15:28

I share your frustration...we live on a road very close to the station. Our street has controlled parking but the same zone is shared by people 400 metres up the hill and it is incredible the number of commuters who drive down the hill and park on our road so that residents can't so that they don't have to get out of breath going home!

BUT perhaps this lady is not lazy, perhaps she drops kids off at nursery and then has to rush to get a train so parking as close as she can to the station makes sense time critically IYSWIM. She does have every right to do so, even though it must be annoying and difficult when you have a 15 month old of your own.

I agree you should ask her politely and point out that with a small child it is very difficult not being able to park all day near your house Hmm is that right? Where is your car parked at 8.30am, or is it just that your DH wants to be able to park when he gets home at 4.30pm in which case YABU after all as you can't expect a space to stay empty all day just so that a grown man doesn't have to walk a couple of hundred yards Grin