Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To get fucked off with people parking on my drive / blocking access to it

55 replies

amoney · 01/10/2011 22:23

And then when I confront said people and ask them to please move, in a friendly, polite way, I get a mouthful of abuse / get told I am being unreasonable and or awkward, it all gets turned back on me as if I am in the wrong for asking them to move and not block my access in the future. I mean wtf, am I living in some strange new world where manners and private space no longer count! I am very rapidly losing patience and don't trust my response if it keeps happening. I know there are more important things in life but where had common decency gone?

Aibu or just growing into a grumpy old lady, a bit of perspective needed please Grin

OP posts:
Flamingredhead · 02/10/2011 11:34

You need to get me cone along I am fed up of dropped kerbs being blocked as means I need to go back on myself and then cone down on the road to next droped Kerb

On advice from our local Pcso I mow take picture of reg and said parking ge then has a polite word with them

diddl · 02/10/2011 11:49

It may have changed, but iirc, you can park across a drive that doesn´t have a car in it.

Ie you can´t block someone in, but it´s OK to prevent access back into their drive.

If there is a garage, I assume you have to keep that clear as you don´t know whether or not there is a car in.

How come people park on your drive, though?

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 02/10/2011 11:53

Vaseline, CustardCake - I like it!! You can be an Evil Genius too. Grin

I'm firmly in the 'don't get mad, get even' camp. Vaseline or laundry detergent won't damage their cars - it will just cause them a lot of grief - like they are causing you.

CristinadellaPizza · 02/10/2011 11:55

You can with the owner's permission diddl. If it's not been granted, the owner is allowed to ring up and get a PCN issued, whether or not a car is on the driveway at the time. If someone parks across my drive then I'm fucked - I live really close to the station in a popular seaside town where free parking is at a premium and quite often there is absolutely nowhere at all to park. I end up having to park in front of my neighbour's dropped kerb

diddl · 02/10/2011 11:58

Well I assume OP hasn´t given permission.

Why would someone park on another person´s drive without permission?Confused

CristinadellaPizza · 02/10/2011 12:03

Because they are a selfish cunt? :o

Tanith · 02/10/2011 13:31

My grandparents used to have this problem. Their drive and garage were at the bottom of their garden and right next to the house round the corner. If you didn't know better, you'd think it was their neighbour's drive and garage: it really did look like it. Their neighbour used to drive them mad by parking on the drive so they couldn't use the drive or garage.

One day, the neighbour swung his car into what he'd thought was an empty drive and crashed into my grandfather's car already parked there.

AnotherJaffaCake · 02/10/2011 13:58

Just had a look at the Highway Code and this is what I found on the point of where you can/can't park - no.243. Hth?

www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Highwaycode/DG_069860

Original poster
amoney · 02/10/2011 15:22

Cristinadellapizza has hit the nail on the head
tanith our parking sounds like your grandparents, I just can't believe people behave the way they do, they think they are so entitled to do as they please, sod everyone else, grrrr

OP posts:
Catslikehats · 02/10/2011 15:33

If someone parks on your drive you should park across it.

You then have to behave with absolute politeness and confidence that you are in the right all the whilst keeping a big smile on your face, when they object.

I witnessed this once - not with a drive but with someone parking in a disabled bay and a blue badge holder blocking him in. The guy was aked to move by the badge holder and refused "I'll just be a minute I'm nipping to the bank" so the woman parked behind him, engineered her exit of vehicle so that he could see her as he returned to his white van (natch) and when he objected trilled "I'm just nipping for lunch, I should be done in about an hour". The exchange was carried out with such aplomb she got a round of applause, he looked like a twat and it was all most amusing Grin

Milliways · 02/10/2011 15:55

A lot of people use our drive to reverse in - drives us nuts as the dog barkss at them all. Once a lady drove right up the drive (it is c.100ft long) and did a 53 point turn outside our house. I went to speak to her and she just said "I'm only turning round" as was not at all embarrassed.

We also live almost opposite a church which makes getting in & out the drive hard as they park opposite, but I refuse to get upset at that as the church was here first! :) If parking for a funeral is too manic we sometimes go out & offer people to use our drive to park in as we can swallow a fair few cars.

StopRainingPlease · 02/10/2011 16:04

I'm glad I don't have a drive actually, much less stressful!

PeachyWhoCannotType · 02/10/2011 16:06

YANBU

We don't have a drive so people park by our front door; legal I know so I don't really say anything unless they actively block the front door, not that unusual and no rear access 'Oh!' they say 'But I have to get to school so will move soon'

Er so do I Bitch. But I don't say that obviously, I just say that if they do not move I will call the police as I have to do a school run also.

We then get complaints that we block the road when the SN taxis drop off two of the boys as it is at school time, except it's just a cut through our road, no reason for them to use it but taxis need to, so I feel less guilty every time.

Andrewofgg · 02/10/2011 16:10

Sorry, but if don't have a drive and they are parking by your front door how are they stopping you doing your school run?

Milliways complaining that people turn on your drive is a bit precious, although I agree driving right up the house was pushing her luck. Gates?

Andrewofgg · 02/10/2011 16:10

If you don't have a drive . . .

PeachyWhoCannotType · 02/10/2011 16:17

Andrew they physically park on the pavement so I cannot leave my front door- no garden or anything, door on to very narrow pavement by roadside- actually physically blocking me in to the house.

Andrewofgg · 02/10/2011 16:18

Thank you Peachy all is explained and that is intolerable.

PeachyWhoCannotType · 02/10/2011 16:25

It's not that common I guess- comes in runs I think, September - November then the new school mums (this is my theory anyway) get less panicky and feel they can risk parking a little more away. OR they do it when DH is home as he will happily call police Wink

ZonkedOut · 02/10/2011 16:36

I live opposite an Indian restaurant so have also witnessed some very dodgy parking, including blocking our drive, parking in our actual drive, and people parking 2 cars deep on the road outside. We have a gate across our drive and our neighbours told us that the previous owners installed it (and they installed their own) because people would actually come into the drive and park there (L shaped drive going behind the house so no mistaking it for public space).

PeachyWhoCannotType · 02/10/2011 17:58

It might depend on where you live then? I know parking here is considered a free for all- small old village centre with narrow roads serving a wider area that includes a university,, 5 schools (only pick up for 3 but amenities for all), a museum and Cadw site, 2 nurseries, 2 Churches, village hall and a nursing home all in our small batch of streets. The bank is where it gets worst; T junction. They don't just park badly- abandoning cars in the middle of the road to use the cashpoint is the norm, lorries even, and you can barely see them there as you come around the corner from one direction due to a slightly odd shaped house on the corner- I know to go at 2mph but visitors in particular don't. Nightmarish. But the school was offered free parking 10 minutes walk away and the parents refused so it's how it is.

CristinadellaPizza · 02/10/2011 18:51

Tomorrow is going to be my first day picking DS up at 'proper' end of schooltime so I will be interested to see the parking transgressions. When I have been collecting him at 1pm, the zigzags have been full up. Now I know they're only operational between 8-10 and 2-4 but if your child is doing a staggered start, then you know that there are 44 other children also that. Surely on the basis that those 44 kids are coming out of reception and have probably less road sense than older children, that really ought to be the moment when you don't park your Galaxy right outside the gate? Confused

Andrewofgg · 02/10/2011 19:19

Ah but Cristina your little darling cannot walk to the next street - or at all - and you are in a greater hurry than all the others put together so if they they don't leave you somewhere off the zigzags to park that's their fault and you can park on them :)

CristinadellaPizza · 02/10/2011 19:40

Andrew - I would have a modicum of sympathy except for the fact that there are three primary schools within a mile radius. Ours is the most over-subscribed and goes on siblings then proximity. So I'd be surprised if anyone had to come further than 1/2 mile.

Dunno really - we walk :D

iFailedTheTuringTest · 02/10/2011 20:40

I lived in a flat accessible only through a narrow exterior stairway. I kept my bike in the flat. All ok till twatty new neighbour took to parking ay the foot of the stairs effectively blocking my access. A polite note had no effect, however him witnessing me dragging my bike over the roof of the car whilst squeezing with a rucksack along the side of it did work

Helenagrace · 02/10/2011 23:02

We live near a big college and have had all manner of parking issues. I've had half of my drive blocked (the empty half). I reversed about a centimetre away from his front bumper and locked it and then got the other car off the drive and pulled up about a centimetre from the back of his car. I didn't answer the door when he knocked. He was stuck there for half an hour.

I came back one day to find a student parked on my drive. She pulled onto my drive apparently to make a phone call. I blocked her in as well. Cheeky madam.

It all came to a head when a man down the road had a heart attack and the ambulance crew culdn't get through. The poor chap had to be wheeled up the road on a stretcher. The police arrived and issued loads of tickets and within 6 weeks we had parking restrictions.

Now loads of my neighbours make a tenner a week renting their drives out to students!