…to consider it bang out of order for people to start mucking about with my car just because they don’t like me parking on their road?

[jfh]

I have to drive to our local station to commute to work (the bus service is truly rubbish). I don’t want pay for the station car park as its half the price of my season ticket again. So I park about 10 mins walk away on a side street. It’s a public highway, with no restrictions. I park on a stretch which runs alongside a fence, so I don’t block anyone’s driveway. I make sure I don’t jam anyone in front or behind me in so they can’t get out. I don’t obstruct the road. Pretty much every house on the road has its own drive. Yet people are taking offence at me and my car – it’s been keyed, and some scrote stuck labels over the glass telling me not to use their road as a station car park.

I’ve now taken to having my iphone at the ready to take a snap of whoever is going to have the balls to actually start having a go to my face, just so I can get plod to pay them a visit on suspicion of criminal damage.

WTF is wrong with some people? (and no, I couldn’t give a sh1t if they did the same in my road…it’s a public highway and no one has the right to park outside their own house)

Its vigilante action. Public roads are paid for out of general taxation, and there is no right to control who parks there. Having strangers park on public roads outside your door is something that happens if you choose to live in an urban area. Attempting to control that by intimidation is verging on the criminal, and I would be tempted to set aside some time one day, watch your car and record any interference with it, then report to the police.

Its often the most uptight, seemingly law abiding person who does stuff like this. They can often be identified by being the one who parks on double yellows themselves, or blocking driveways, when it suits.

I call it the "small god complex".

jesus, I think the comments about people being tight arses for not wanting to pay through the nose (on top of the extortionate rail fares they'll be paying as well) for parking are VVVVVU. Perhaps you'd like to help people out on this front? No, didn't think so. Train fares have been rising well above inflation for years. Car parks charge a fortune. And you're being snippy because someone is legally parking on a public highway that you have no exclusive right to? You can so fuck off to the far side of fuck with that attitude.

Yep, someone else's train fares was high on my priority list when my mother was so ill that she couldn't make it to the toilet etc and I couldn't park at all, had to drive past and go back home and leave her to it. Three residential streets only and all of them jammed with commuters and no driveways.

I've paid train fares, congestion charge, parking fees, the lot when I worked, such is life. Your attitude can fuck off to the far side of fuck.

Gwendoline sorry but it doesn't alter the fact you don't own the street outside your house. If the situation is as bad as you described the streets sound as if they should be zoned as residents' controlled parking.

the problem is that there are so many more cars around. when the housing was built with no drives, no one had cars.

We are fortunate enough to have a drive for one car. we have a primary school and tube station very near but it is so convenient for usl

it must be a nightmare to have no off street parking but op has done nothing wrong.

My husband is one of those paying extortionate rail fares. I drive him to the station at 7.30 every morning so that he doesn't have to pay extortionate car parking fees on top.
So fuck off yourself, MrsOakenshield!

Absolutely. I agree in principle and I certainly wouldn't dream of touching anyone's car. But the sod you attitude from the poster above me was totally unnecessary and self centred. Regardless of whether our actions, whatever they are, are legal it surely doesn't hurt to acknowledge why those actions might frustrate or inconvenience others even if you have no intention of changing.

well, that's nice for your DH that he has you to chauffeur him to the station, Toby - is it really beyond your comprehension that not everyone has that luxury? That they might have to do their entire journey under their own steam? What would happen if for some reason, long term, you couldn't drive your DH around - could he afford those parking fees? Well, again, lucky for him - not everyone can.

And Gwendoline - I'm sorry about your mother but again, not the fault of those who park on a public highway that happens to be the road you live on. I had a bloody great hole in my road for 3 months, work being done, and a third of the road blocked off - we all just had to get on with it, and yes, some days had to park on a different road and lug shopping and small child home.

I'm simply responding to those who called people who didn't want to pay car park charges 'tight'. Probably a bit too vehemently, but I can't believe that anyone for one second would 'understand' the actions of someone who damages a legally parked car.

The common theme throughout all of the threads whether supportive of op's actions or not is that nobody condones the vandalism aspect of the post.

It isnt illegal to park in parent and child spaces and people who do so could argue that they have every right to park where they like but its not necessarily fair.

parking in a parent and child space without a child I mean.

Drives me bananas. I live on a busy street where people park outside my house all the time. Fine I choose to live here. I got a heady rant from a lady Mrs Hyacinth Bucket for parking on her road for 10 minutes at school pick up. Obviously she has no clue where I live but I am in a similar situation to her and have never behaved like her. She told me her husband would have to do something about it. I just said unfortunately for you it is a public road and there is nothing you can do and suggested maybe they should consider moving. What was really annoying is that I never drive to the school so I was peed off ending up being ranted at on the one day I did.

Parking a distance away, in a place where you know it inconveniences others, just to save on car parking is tight.

Or financially necessary. Or completely reasonable given that it is a PUBLIC ROAD, paid for by TAXES.

This topic usually goes the other way on here.

"Parking a distance away, in a place where you know it inconveniences others, just to save on car parking is tight."

It's no more tight than not paying to have a driveway to park your car on.

Living on a street gives you no more right to park there than anyone else.

If that fact "inconveniences" you, then you need to put on your big girl knickers and grow the fuck up.

The OP might just as well complain about how the selfish fuckers who live on that street so near to the station have cars at all.

Everyone in the country has an equal right to park on that public street.

Both moral and legal.

Getting all worked up because other human beings use the same resources as you and don't recognise your imagined superior entitlement is just being a massive tool.

Parking a distance away, in a place where you know it inconveniences others, just to save on car parking is tight.

No more tight than refusing to pay for private parking outside your own home.

It's no more tight than not paying to have a driveway to park your car on.

Hahaha! That doesn't even make sense! How does one just magic up a driveway for a house which doesn't have one or space to put one?

If you've read my posts at all, instead of just hysterically leaping upon something you disagree with and swearing at me, you would note that this doesn't affect me directly. So thanks for your concern, but my underwear is exactly the right size. And any 'worked up' on this thread has not come from me.

You should probably calm down before you hurt yourself, Join.

I used to live near a station, on a quiet road, on the corner of a very busy main road. People used our road as the station car park which they have every right to do. However, it fucked me off because the cars were packed on both sides road which made it a nightmare to turn out of the road when it's busy. It was also difficult if you ever wanted to reverse in or out of our drive. They weren't parking illegally and technically, it wasn't legally dangerous but actually, it bloody was dangerous! Our neighbours all agreed and we sympathised with each other but as it wasn't illegal, there wasn't much we could do. The selfish twats could have spread out further along the (very long) road but chose to park as close to the junction as possible for a minimum walk.

Have you reprted the damage, OP? If it's happening repeatedly I would call 101 and make them aware of ongoing vandalism. If it's happening to a lot of cars the police may be able to monitor the area one day or at least speak to the residents.

I had my tyres slashed once when parked legally in a residential area to play at a church fete. 3 other band members also had the same treatment. They were 2 brand new tyres, cost me over £200, and right before Christmas. Bastards.

Maybe if the people who need to park outside people's houses give their location and the mumsnetters who don't mind people parking outside their homes give their location we could reach a compromise here. Anyone close to Birmingham City Centre? I pay a fortune to park at the train station.

It makes as much sense as insisting that people get priority for parking on public roads based on how close they live to them.

Hint: they don't.

So the OP is no more inconveniencing the people who live there than they are inconveniencing her.

If they want to live in houses with off-street parking, they need to move.

Otherwise, they need to understand that they have no priority parking on the street where they live and deal with that reality.

I have read all your posts.

Including the one where you said that you would get The Rage if people dared to use public amenities their taxes had paid for if you happened to live closer to them and felt (erroneously) that they belonged to you.

Believe me, I'm not remotely perturbed or upset to see another person being a total dick about this issue. It's risible.

It's mind-boggling that some people are deluded enough to think the public road outside their house actually belongs to them. No, it doesn't. The clue is in the word "public." Everyone is entitled to park there. But the people who believe the road belongs to them exclusively are the ones with a misplaced sense of entitlement. It's ridiculous. Surely when they moved into the house, they knew that it was situated on a public road and that (shock horror!) anyone could park there.

Please stop calling me names, Join. It's unnecessary and it demeans you.

I'm with primallass. And there is no way in this situation I would pay to park if I could park nearby, legally, on a public road, for free.

Doesn't affect me as there is parking where I work (which I pay for a permit to use). But I don't have a drive and if someone parked outside my house I'd suck it up graciously. Unlike my twat of a neighbour (but that's another thread)

I don't think anyone is insisting that anyone else owns the road. Yes, I would be very annoyed if I consistently had to park my car a couple of streets away from my own house because the street upon which I lived was full of cars belonging to people who didn't want to pay for station car parking.
Could I do anything about it? No.
Have I said anywhere that I would be more entitled to that space than anyone else? No.
But would it still annoy me if I had to do 2 trips from 2 streets away with a week's shopping and a toddler? Of course. And if it wouldn't annoy you in the least, you're probably a liar much more zen than I am.

"It's unnecessary and it demeans you."

:o

Please don't say completely stupid patronising shit like this to me.

It's unnecessary and it demeans you.