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AIBU?

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Original poster

Row over no dropped kerb

163 replies

pingu2209 · 07/05/2011 14:45

My friend lives in a very busy and narrow street full of Victorian terraced houses with terrible parking issues. Many of the houses have had their front garden walls removed and paved over their garden so that they can park their car.

Some of these houses have paid the council to drop the kerb outside so they can park, but many of the houses have not. You can legally park across someone's house (and therefore car parking space) where the kerb is not dropped.

There are constant rows between my friend and her neighbours when she parks infront of 2 or 3 houses where the kerb is not dropped. When she does it, it is because she has no choice as there is no where else to park on the street.

The owners of these houses have become really nasty about it and she is worried her car/house will be damaged during the night. Her view is they should apply for a dropped kerb and pay for it to be done. Of course, they may well have already applied and the council have turned them down as there are so many dropped kerbs already? Who knows.

Is she being unreasonable?

OP posts:
squeakytoy · 07/05/2011 14:47

Its a tricky one really. Legally she isnt doing anything wrong but continually pissing off the neighbours does not lead to a harmonious life.

The council round our way have started planting concrete bollards in front of houses that have tried to evade paying for a dropped kerb.

Does your friend have a dropped kerb or is she going to apply for one?

wotnochocs · 07/05/2011 14:49

Yes she is BU- If they had a dropped kerb then 'your friend ' would still have the same problem of nowhere to park.I think she is being a bit selfish!Councils want to create off-street parking so I don't think it very likely they would want to turn it down.More likely the owners can't afford it.

MmaIvvy · 07/05/2011 14:50

She is technically in the right but IMO she is BU, she knows they use it as a drive so I would just treat it like one.

SoupDragon · 07/05/2011 14:50

Yes, she is being unreasonable. just because she can legally park theree doesn'tmean she should piss off the neighbours.

obviously, they should apply for the dropped kerb but what ever happens to neighbourliness??

if parking is so difficult for her and she is unable to walk from somewhere else, she should have her own front garden turned over to parking. And, just for good measure, report al those neighbours who haven't had a dropped kerb put in as, IIRC, they do not have right of way to drive over the pavement without one.

Original poster
pingu2209 · 07/05/2011 14:50

She doesn't have a dropped kerb but does have a little garden and wall. She wants to park on the street and keep her garden.

I may mention it to my friend re the bollards. She could suggest the council do it. There are loads of streets near her that are exactly the same!

OP posts:
LaurieFairyCake · 07/05/2011 14:53

Yes, blocking someone in would make her an arse.

If they applied she couldn't park there so it's common courtesy to not park there when someone has paved their garden for parking.

What prevents her paving her own garden?

SoupDragon · 07/05/2011 14:53

Well, if she wants to keep her garden she needs to pay the price and walk a bit further.

Original poster
pingu2209 · 07/05/2011 14:54

It has got so nasty that she has told the council and the wrote letters to each of the houses. This only made the neighbours even more pissed off.

She doesn't park infront of their houses unless there is nowhere to park, including in other local streets.

But the nastiness has made her so angry that she will only drive up and down her street looking but not any other street. If no spaces are available other than infront of one of the houses who have made their garden into parking, she parks there.

I can feel it building up and up. I'm waiting for the explosion.

OP posts:
HecateQueenOfTheNight · 07/05/2011 14:54

agree with squeaky. she's not doing anything wrong legally, but is it really a good idea to have a war with the neighbours over parking?

Suppose they had a dropped kerb put in tomorrow. Where would she park then? Perhaps she should just park there now?

She could always choose to say to them that there is no dropped kerb so people are allowed to park there, it's not access unless there's a dropped kerb.

I mean, they've no right to be rude to her, she's doing nothing wrong, but she has to choose whether she wants a quiet life or convenient parking. whether she wants to stand up to these unreasonable people - maybe it will sort it, who knows? or whether she just wants to let them have their parking and go park in the next street or something.

VajazzHands · 07/05/2011 14:54

She is being unreasonable!

LaurieFairyCake · 07/05/2011 14:55

X posted.

Well, I live in the same sort of set up and sometimes I just have to put up with Parking round the corner.

I can't pave my garden as some of the houses are too close to the street for a space and some aren't.

SoupDragon · 07/05/2011 14:55

I'm not surprised the neighbours are pissed off. she sounds like a nightmare TBH.

AmazingBouncingFerret · 07/05/2011 14:55

Well yes she can do it but it's not very nice is it. Her neighbours are trying to solve the parking issues on their road by using their old gardens as driveways. That's the decent thing IMO. Your friend is being very un-neighbourly.

diddl · 07/05/2011 14:56

Well, if she is effectively blocking someone´s parking place, and she knows it, it seems very rude of her.

As suggested, if parking is so difficult, perhaps she should make her own front garden into a parking place.

FabbyChic · 07/05/2011 14:57

She is not being unreasonable, if there is no dropped kerb she can park there, I would urge her to contact the council about these people who park and refuse to pay for a dropped kerb. I would always park where there is no dropped kerb.

thumbwitch · 07/05/2011 14:57

Well she IBU, really. I used to live in a road like that and it pissed me off enormously if people parked in front of my space! (mind you, they shouldn't have been doing that anyway because no one was allowed to park on my side of the road, it was too narrow, so it was double yellows all the way down). I was right next to a driveway through to another dwelling behind my house, so didn't really need the dropped kerb to get onto my parking space. I believe that the council get a bit shirty if people drive over raised kerbs; but they charge the bloody earth to get it dropped (around £1000, I was told) so it's not surprising that people don't get it done.

Anyway - if all these people do get dropped kerbs she won't be able to park there anyway - so she should just do her own garden as well, like I had to, if she wants to keep a car.

CelebratedMonkey · 07/05/2011 14:57

If she is blocking people in then she's being unreasonable and it will just get nastier.

LaurieFairyCake · 07/05/2011 14:57

If this has made her so angry that she now refuses to park in other streets and deliberately generates conflict she needs to deal with that.

That's a far bigger issue than 'parking'.

Tell her to take a chill pill and get some help.

Original poster
pingu2209 · 07/05/2011 14:58

This is very interesting. Your responses are that my friend is being unreasonable, but I really think that it is the neighbours that are being unreasonable. They are breaking the law, not my friend.

If she was picking their houses when other spaces were available then I think she was being an arse. But she only does it when there is nowhere else to park.

She can't make her garden into a drive as she rents.

OP posts:
HecateQueenOfTheNight · 07/05/2011 14:59

x-post. my god. she knows they are cross so she is deliberatly trying to park only in the street and preferably in front of one of their houses?

Sorry, but she is really being petty and unreasonable in that. That's just trying to inflame things.

Doesn't she just want to live her life, quietly and nicely? without neighbour wars?

Sometimes you have to compromise when you live in a crowded area.

And she has the option to solve it right away by using her own garden for her own parking! Does she only have a front garden to use? she has no back garden to be her garden and front to be parking?

Neighbours should not be being so rude about something like parking, I am not saying they are right in that. It's a public road, no parking restrictions, she can park where she likes.

But just because you can, doesn't always mean you should. She should really look at the bigger picture here.

BluddyMoFo · 07/05/2011 14:59

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

alemci · 07/05/2011 14:59

Perhaps she should contact the council. i don't think they should drive over the kerb. If everyone else has to pay to drop their kerbs why shouldn't they.

I think she should forgo her garden and drop her own kerb. I couldn't stand the agro from the neighbours if she parked over their drives

BTW how much does it cost to have the kerb dropped by the council.

SoupDragon · 07/05/2011 15:00

"She can't make her garden into a drive as she rents."

interesting, because a few posts ago she didnt want to do it because she wanted to keep her garden. Hmm

squeakytoy · 07/05/2011 15:00

Did she not consider the parking issues that were likely to arise when she choose to live there? It would be one of my major influences as to whether I would live in a street like that or not.

BluddyMoFo · 07/05/2011 15:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

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