Has anyone got a dropped kerb in front of their house?

[annoyednow]

If you have, can you please tell me where you regard as the prohibited area for other motorists.

Is it
(a) Where the kerb is flush with the level of the ground
or
(b) The other side of the sloping area that joins the flat area to the normal pavement.

Have you an official source for this?

Maybe not correct place to post, sorry.

You'd need to go by road markings.

There were no road markings. It was a residential property with no white line in front of it.

I have a dropped kerb. The bit where it is flush is where I drive across. No need for lines, noone can park there. Paid for it four years ago.

I would say the sloped areas of pavement are included in the dropped kerb so I wouldn't park alongside them, but that's based on nothing other than my own parking habits.

I have one but I think you need the white "T line" markings to make it an offence to park there - not sure about this though, just a vague recollection of what the contractor who did the dropped kerb said to us.

I would be pissed off though if someone parked there and blocked us in/out. I would consider the flush part to be the "no park" area. The slope bit would be fine as that part wouldn't block access. Legally, though I think people could park on any of it as we don't have the road marking. No-one does though.

Ring your council highways department - they will know.

we have one, as long as the car can get out the drive i wouldn't think any deeper than that tbh. although our road is very very narrow so when the woman opposite parks opposite our drive it really annoys, even though i know legally can but the reason is cos she came round mouthing off about a guest at our house parking across our drive (ie opposite hers) but she is happy to do the same to us
surely depends how wide the drive is, if its wide enough and can get out okay then doesnt matter if someone is a tiny bit on the sloping part? if they are causing a nusiance and cant get the car out, then it is not on?

We live on a fairly narrow road so if someone parked on our slopey bit it would make it slightly harder to get out as it would narrow the angle of how we would turn out onto the road and also block my view of approaching traffic Romanian scrap metal merchant 4 doors down and your skanky collection of vans I am looking at you.

Mildly irritating, but not, I fear, illegal if there are no road markings. However I try not to do it to others because I know how annoying it can be!

You need to speak to your local authority. They can give you chapter and verse.

If there are no white lines in front of a dropped kerb, anyone can park there provided they don't block a car from exiting. It is not illegal to prevent someone from getting onto their drive, only from getting off it.

xposts Firawla :)

I read your other thread and I think you are heading for a HUGE fall out with your neighbours! Your best plan of action would be to have your own dropped kerb and park there. That's what we did when faced with similar parking problems.

Believe me - it is so not worth falling out over parking. People are very territorial over parking I find and these things can easily escalate...

No access was blocked. The dropped kerb was longer one side than the gap for the drive. I was not at the drive end. Owner wanted to park along the kerb with a van. The van was longer than the kerb and he needed extra space along sloping and raised kerb also.

What department in the council to find out this information? Environment /planning?

No. I'm not going to push anything. I shall avoid the sloping area. But I really want to know if this is the official stance.

However, if I parked legitimately along the completely raised area and was harassed about this how am I precipitating a fallout. I have never met this guy before.

It's Highways you need to call. My Dad used to work there so I'm sure this is the right department.

I consider it bad practice to park over where the curb starts to drop. If you do, it makes it extremely tight for people to get into their drive. It isn't illegal however.

Our neighbour does it all the time (making it very difficult to reverse into our drive) and we've started parking our second car as close to her bumper as we can (in front of our drive) to make it hard for her to get out. Seemed to get the message across, but every so often it needs to be reinforced. The daft thing is that it's not even in front of her own house! We don't park there out of courtesy as she has always used that space (plus we don't want to inconvenience our other neighbours), but we will if she continues to be a problem.

How do you get lines painted? Can you pay the council to do it?

Mishy, would you still park as close to her bumper and try and make it hard for her to get out if her car was completely and correctly alongside the raised kerb, but only just?

Yes the council paint the lines - it becomes their responsibilty to maintain them once they're down I believe as our neighbour has them and every time the road gets resurfaced they come and re-paint the lines. I don't think it costs much, but I think it does highlight you as being a bit of a knob over parking IMO.

Not that you're a knob mishy - just our neighbour was!

As I said in your first post, it's not about where the dropped kerb is because it's not a No Parking zone. You simply have to allow access across the footpath. If there is no vehicle entry to the house at that point you can park there.
But you said before that the guy was a builder. Has he extended the dropped kerb himself ? If the width of the dropped kerb is greater than others in the area I would report it to the Council.

I wouldn't mind white lines. At least you'd know where you were.

annoyednow - tbh, yes. We have spoken to her about it before, so she is aware it's a problem for us. We live on a fairly busy road, a few houses from the corner of a junction. Cars can come around the corner quite fast, so you have to be quick to reverse into the drive (plus you have to pull up beside her car and kind of reverse around it iyswim). Having to do it in 2 manoeuvres because she's parked up the arse of our drive makes it very tricky. We are talking about someone who has been asked on 10+ occasions and has agreed that it's unreasonable for her to do so. She is obviously aware that she is making life difficult for us (she has admitted so, when I have asked her to move her car), so we are just repaying the favour!

northcountrygirl - if your neighbours won't be courteous then sometimes you have no choice but to define the boundaries. Some people can be very selfish and need a 'push' in the right direction. I don't think doing that makes someone a 'knob'.

I never said he was a builder. He has a van that he parks alongside the kerb and then some.

Thank you all for replies. It's given me some distance. I won't park over the flush with road kerb, or the sloping kerb now. Trouble is I fear if I park the few inches further on the completely raised kerb, it will also instigate some anti-social behaviour. I believe this is the intended outcome.

Oh sorry northcountrygirl, crossed posts!

I know what you are saying Mishy, but surely I have as much right to park on raised area with courtesy. The area in front of my house is usually parked on and I wouldn't dream of harassing people because there is no dropped kerb.

This guy is unapproachable.