Row over no dropped kerb

[pingu2209]

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?

Paving your garden, not dropping the kerb and exepcting people not to park in front of it is exactly the same, morally and legally, as people leaving traffic cones in 'their' space.

A public resource ? It's a bit of kerb. I would never park over someones driveway be it officially endorsed by the greedy Burghers in the council or not. And I would neither be using the excuse of 'law' to justify my own selfishness and inconsiderateness either.
I would look to my own conscience before the 'law' so unequivacally yes.

A public parking space is a public resource.

DontGoCurly But it's not a drive, just a paved front garden.

That's a technicality as far as most are concerned, I would see the people in the houses as more entitled to the access than some randomer. I wouldnt dream of parking there whether I was entitled to or not.

My house is a little wider than a terrace, with its own drop kerb & drive. if I were to pave/tarmac my entire front garden I would never expect the whole of the frontage to be mine and mine alone, I'd never be that selfish!

Oh God, parking is such a nightmare - sounds horrific! I'm going to refrain from commenting on the rights and wrongs of the situation.

However, OP, I really take issue with your post which states "You eventually find somewhere but have a walk in the dark (in winter) along narrow streets which aren't that well lit". Are you honestly saying that your friend has a god-given right to park near her house because it's DARK? It's dark for about 16 hours out of 24 in the winter in this country, and people still have to go about their daily business, even if, shock horror, they are women! If more people were prepared to walk around in the dark, the streets would be a lot safer.

Okay - I have been out for the day so have come back to a huge thread that I wasn't expecting. I am not trying to Bump this, nobody needs to add more to the thread, but I will answer some of the questions / comments on here.

• My friend does not believe she has to park outside her house - just on her street would be fine.

• On the street of at least 150 houses about 25 have dropped kerbs and at least a further 50 have paved their front gardens but not had the kerb dropped.

• My friend's household has 1 car. The majority on the road have 2. One of the houses with a paved front but no dropped kerb have 4 cars.

• To my knowledge she hasn't blocked anyone in (yet) but frequently she does park infront of a paved front but full, high kerb.

• She is not the only person on the street parking infront of the houses with paved frontage. There are about 100 houses (that is 200 cars!) that try to legally park their cars. All I am saying is that her car won't be specifically targetted for vandalism.

• If she could easily park in the next street along, or even the one after that, she would. However, all the streets are the same. They get cars parking on their street from neighbourly streets.

• There is no point her moving as she the whole area is like the one I have described. Every street is the same.

The readers here seem to be split 25:75 against my friend. But the majority have not swayed me. I still believe she is being reasonable.

Whatever - parking is a massive issue for these type of streets all over the country. I have no idea what the resolution is. It is not as though there is cheap and convenient public transport!

For my flats, I have to pay for resident's parking or pay and display parking to park anywhere near them. Even then I often have to park several streets away to avoid getting a parking ticket. This happens in the hours of darkness too. Its pretty common in cities all over the country. I don't think your friend's excuse of wanting to park near her house is reasonable. If it is, she should pay for her own kerb to be dropped or ensure she lives in a house with a parking space.

I'd never block someone else's parking space out of sheer laziness. Whether or not the kerb was dropped.

It does sound like a very unregulated area though, the local authority are obviously missing a good source of revenue by not making it zoned pay and display parking!

I do see your friends point of view, but she is BU by purposely provoking her neighbours and knowingly inflaming the situation.
Pretty Childish IMO.

I'd love to see her reaction if two of her pissed off neighbours gave her a taste of her own medicine by deliberatly parking nose-to-tail two inches away from her car, blocking her in instead

If the kerbs not dropped, it's a legitmate parking space. Why should the friend have to park further away because someone has paved their front garden? You are not blocking any legal access by parking there.

If you have got a parking permit, and there is a residents parking bay in front of a paved garden with no dropped kerb, who takes priority? The person who has paid for the right to park in a residents parking bay, or the person who wants to reserve that space for themselves whether they are using it or not?

i would hate to live by someone like that, i sometimes park over someone drive (no drop curb) but they can always knock the door when they need the drive (they don't drive so it when there guest stay) which is very rare