Neighbours, driveways and stupid police.

[montysma1]

My driveway entrance is double width, leading into my largely monoblocked driveway, which extends to the full width of my house. The entrance and the driveway are accessed over the pavement which has a lowered kerb.

I am plagued by cars doing 3 point turns, either mounting the pavement (best case ) or more commonly, crossing the pavement and driving squarely right into my monoblocked garden as part of their turn. Its annoying when randopm cars do it.

More annoyingly, a woman who comes daily to a house 3 down from ours (I think she might be the granny and might be child caring), uses our driveways habitually for all her turns, and I mean, all 4 wheels in my garden, (head lights beaming into our living room if its dark). Tonight i actually had to sit in the road way waiting for her to reverse out ouf my drive before I could get in to park on it! She actaully drices right past the driveway of the house she is going into (as it is narrow), manouvers in my garden and drives back down the street to park at the house she is going into!

Phoned the police tonight who say this is neither a criminal or civil offence. They are sending a community officer tomorrow to assuage my ranting, although, I did point out thats its not me who is doing it, so why not visit her?

AIBU to phone thenm back and point out that they are talking crap and that the law seems to state "that it is an offence to drive a vehicle over a pavement unless to gain access to private property" As she is not gaining access to my property, nor has she permission to , then surely it is an offence to mount the pavemnt at my house let alone drive right over it onto my property.

My children play in the garden, and know nopt to even so much as oput a toe out onto the pavement. but they cant even be safe in their own garden as according to the police, its perfectly fine for random cars to swing in at speed, reverse and leave again. they said i should phone back if a car hits one of them!

[helenthemadex]

I would have talked to her or the whoever she is visiting to ask her to stop it, or do something to prevent her turning.

If necessary for the time being put your bin in the middle so its not possible for her to turn, and put up gates or that mesh barrier

YANBU for being irritated but YABVU for not trying to sort this out yourself

[tryingtonotfeckup]

Agree its really annoying, have you asked her to stop? Calling the police is an over reaction unless there is more to it....

[PercyIsGreen]

Put your wheelie bin there

[ClimbingPenguin]

I honestly do not understand what the problem is

[QOD]

Oh that would "drive" me nuts!

I never allowed dd to walk n other people's gardens, up their drives, on their front walls etc etc as its an invasion of my personal space when people do it to me

Before we had block paving, I often used to have to pick up dog shit from our gravel drive as people seem to think its fair game to let their kids AND dogs onto private property

Where's "getorfmoiland" when you want her?

[lisaro]

Gates? Don't think it's the police that are 'stupid' here. Although yes, it's rude.

[tryingtonotfeckup]

What about those spike things that police use to stop speeding / dangerous drivers and stolen cars?

4 flat tyres should stop her doing it again

[BellaVita]

The Police at not stupid, but to be fair, I would not want someone driving onto my driveway and using it to turn their vehicle around.

[lisaro]

Sorry meant to say what about gates. Not dissing people who said gates.

[Ilovemydogandmydoglovesme]

I also occasionally have this problem. We live in a small cul-de-sac down a lane and people regularly use it to turn round in. If someone's parked out there they turn round in my drive instead.

I too have pulled up behind a woman turning round in my drive. She gestured at me to go past so she could pull out easier. I did the universally know sign with my thumb that said 'hop it!' She had to very carefully edge round me to get out, giving me a lovely dark look but I was fucked if I was going to reverse out of the way!

It does annoy me when people pull onto my drive. It's gravel so you can hear it from anywhere and I always think 'ooh someone's popped round' or something only to see the arse end of some random car driving away.

[Sallyingforth]

It's not the police who are being stupid. It's the people who waste their time when they could be out preventing or detecting crime.

What do you expect the police to do about it? Stand guard on your drive for you?

If you want to stop people turning into your drive there are plenty of things you can do to stop them.

[montysma1]

They law states that you shouldnt drive over pavements, its an offence, the police should know that. With a lowered kerb you are allowed to drive over a pavement to access property. She isnt acessing it, she has no permission to be there. She is turning.The street is a very wide, empty one with no through traffic, plenty of room to manoever, so if she cannot turn a small Yaris car, without 3 extra feet of pavement and a good twenty extra feet of my garden then she shouldnt be driving. I'm not talking an inch or two of wheel, she is driving right up to our door step, and thats a good twenty feet from the pavement. On one notable occasion she was rolled right past the living room window, could see the whites of her eyes.

I called the police because it is dangerous, she has had one narrow miss, where my child stepped from behind the gatepost, and she was completly unaware, drove away oblivious. I have not tackled the home owners directly as the two large Akitas patrolling the garden discourage visitors. Also, reasonable is not their first reaction. Another neighbour asked them to cut a hedge back, we were all having to walk on the road to get past, not a happy outcome.

I shouldnt need a gate, I dont drive into her property or anyone elses. Also, have been told that wooden ones would sag and jam at that width, (it would need to be a very big gate) so would need to be iron, a lot of money I cant spare. Also, its just inconvenient, why should I ? I dont enter other peoples gardens at random, with or without a car.

I often park my car lengthwise over my gateway on the street to block it, but i dont like doing that as it makes it awkward for my neighbour opposite.

She does this multiple times a day, whether or not the children are in the garden. As does one of the the two "resident" cars from that house.


If I were complaining that someones children were playing in my garden, or their dog shitting in it or their trees blocking my light, or all manner of other things that people moan on here about, most people are supportive. I cant see not wishing to provide a public turning circle is "petty" .

[Milliways]

I got flamed here before on an old thread about parking when I moaned about something similar. It is not the using end of our drive to turn in (Ours is widest entrance of our row of houses) but some drive 100' in to use our turning area! The dog was forever going ballistic!

One lady took so long manoeuvring I went out to ask her who she had come to visit- no apology, just "I'm only turning round!"

[FredFredGeorge]

Not having permission to access your property doesn't make it a criminal offence. It simply does not. If you weren't wasting police time through your lack of understanding of the law then I might've given you a different response, but YABU it's not a police matter, make some money for lawyers, put in some bollards, or forget about it.

[WorraLiberty]

She is accessing your property so she can legally drive over the pavement.

The fact you don't want her to access it, would probably come under some sort of ancient tresspass law but you'd probably have to display signs.

[Ilovemydogandmydoglovesme]

I do sympathise with you monty. Couldn't you do as someone else suggested and have two gates, one two-thirds across and one third left for you to squeeze through? Or whatever fits. I'm sure it would put her off if once or twice she found them closed. And on the gate that's left closed, stick a big Private Property sign, if you think she'd see it!

[Lolwhut]

How about some motion activated light or moving, flashing or beeping toy placed next to a sign asking people not to turn in your drive.

A motion activated water sprinkler used for scaring crows would be good if you directed at her windscreen. . Trouble is that the postie might not appriciate it.

Fussing about the legalities is a bit

[RosesAreBetter]

My BRO had this exact same problem,
They couldn't afford the £1300 it would cost for a gate so instead they had a chain attached (two brackets, heavy chain and two big padlocks.)
The had the chain attached on 3ft high posts with enough slack that someone could turn a little bit but would risk scratching their car.

It worked perfectly. And only cost them around £100.

[Houseofplain]

It's not a police matter.

Yanbu to be annoyed about it.

Yabu to have a go at the police and not help yourself.

Why can't you have a polite word? Why won't you consider gates or bollards? You seem ever so concerned for the safety of your dc's. So if it's that much of a danger. It a no brainer surely? You said why should you get gates. Well that's your reason surely?

[Sirzy]

Ask her not to do it, get a gate or something but calling the police about someone turning their car around? Seriously?

[RosesAreBetter]

You could always try putting up signs saying "NO ACCESS" or "NO TURNING" "PRIVATE PROPERTY"

Then if people continue put up a sign saying "THIS DRIVEWAY IS COVERED IN NAILS ANS GLASS, TURN AT RISK TO YOUR CAR"

[redlac]

This would drive me bananas! I would look for a pattern of her doing it and time your return home and block her in.

[BeanieStats]

This really isn't a police matter. It is at best a civil matter of trespass and even then its a bit tenuous.

Put a bollard or similar in the way.

[WorraLiberty]

These collapsible metal posts are only 50 quid