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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to park in this street?

119 replies

ashmts · 03/02/2015 18:23

Parking thread. I work in a hospital in a residential area of a large town. Parking is terrible, the main car park is for visitors only and has a limit of 4 hours. There are smaller car parks for people with permits (only staff who work between sites or are on call) or one car park for all staff with about 30 spaces which are full well before I start work.

The only option is to park in one of the streets nearby. For the past couple of months I've been parking in a cul de sac which has 6 spaces in the middle for cars. Every house also has a driveway and obviously by parking in the space I never block anyone's. Today I left work to find a note on my windscreen from a resident saying the spaces are for the use of residents only, not staff of the hospital.

So, what do I do? I do understand it would be annoying but it's a public road and I need to park somewhere. Before I could drive I had to get two trains and a bus to and from work (an hour and a half each way) so I'm not going to stop driving to work.

OP posts:
Original poster
ashmts · 03/02/2015 19:00

poppy but would it bother you if you had a driveway?

OP posts:
AttilaTheMeerkat · 03/02/2015 19:01

Are you quite certain it is a public road?. I would make further enquiries. Some cul de sacs only have parking for residents and their visitors only (the one I am thinking of certainly has that arrangement and those residents do own the land in front of their drives).

On a wider level I would be speaking to the management or your union rep re this issue as you are likely not the only one to have such parking problems.

Those sound like bays for visitors. Someone has seen you park in that general area for the last couple of months and has worked out that you are neither visiting nor live there.

A potential solution for you would be to now look at parking websites like "just park" etc as these residents are willing to let out their parking spaces to people on a weekly, monthly or even yearly basis. It will cost but at least you won't get a menacing note or worse left on your car windscreen.

Thumbcat · 03/02/2015 19:05

If the spaces aren't numbered and there aren't any signs to say otherwise then you are perfectly entitled to park there, so carry on. I can't stand petty curtain twitchers who get their knickers in a twist about parking. I live very near a station and our road is busy on weekdays with commuter's parking, but good luck to them if they can find a space.

marmaladegranny · 03/02/2015 19:06

This sort of thing got so bad near our local hospital that eventually all the surrounding residential roads had parking restrictions imposed, limiting parking to 4 hours only between 8am and 4pm.
It is not a new occurrence though - many, many years ago the residents association near my local train station started putting notes on the regularly parked cars - I was young and really upset by receiving this note although I had done nothing wrong!

Candycoco · 03/02/2015 19:08

There are websites such as Just Park (don't know how to link but you can google) where people rent out their driveways outside their house (particularly if they live in areas close to stations, hospitals, airports etc) and you can pay them to park on their drive way.
It might be worth looking into seeing if anyone has a driveway available you could pay to park on if it's going to be an ongoing issue.

PoppySausage · 03/02/2015 19:09

But what if it is owned by someone? It is off road visitor parking. It would still bother me if I had a drive as I plan for the number of spaces I have and there is limited room and most days 3 of us come and go.

There may be no sign but I think it is largely understood that bays are allocated even if not numbered.

I don't think it is being a curtain twitcher for getting annoyed people park on my land without my permission and with no thought that it may inconvenience me.

PoppySausage · 03/02/2015 19:11

No issue at all with on road parking - my dsis lives hear a hospital and it is always busy, but that's what you get with no bays

WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 03/02/2015 19:11

Even if you don't live near a big employer it can be a problem, I live in a smallish town, half a mile from the town centre, only a couple of v.small businesses at our end of town (pubs) but by 8.30 every morning our entire street is full of parked cars that stay till about 5.30. We have a drive so we aren't directly affected, but sometimes they park either side and opposite us which can make it almost impossible to get out of the drive (narrow road, you'd have to be able to turn the car at a right angle in it's own length). You also have to slalom in between the parked cars to get back in again. It's a pain for deliveries and visitors. So yes, I have a driveway and yes it bothers me.

AttilaTheMeerkat · 03/02/2015 19:11

Have used just park before without problems and I found it to be a boon in an area (not near a station) where the council imposed parking restrictions at the residents request (thus turning their streets into a ghost town).

www.justpark.com/

Andrewofgg · 03/02/2015 19:12

If it's a public road, park there and leave a large printed sign in your windscreen saying THIS IS A PUBLIC ROAD AND ANYONE MAY PARK HERE INCLUDING ME.

And thank you, we all like a parking thread!

AttilaTheMeerkat · 03/02/2015 19:13

In the cul de sac I am thinking of all the "secondary" bays are also owned by the residents. You cannot simply assume that because they are not being used a non resident can use it.

OddBoots · 03/02/2015 19:14

If they are privately owned spaces sold with the houses, which it sounds like they may be then yes it would annoy me if that was my house. If someone had a double width driveway it wouldn't be okay for a stranger to park in one space on it just because they still had another space.

Andrewofgg · 03/02/2015 19:15

Attila you suggest speaking to management or the union.

Which of them is expected to exercise jurisdiction outside the hospital?

Which of them is expected to pull spaces out of their collective backside?

CheeseandPickledOnion · 03/02/2015 19:15

What Poppy said.

No, ours are not marked, why would they be? We are in a cul-de-sac we don't expect people to drive into it and use our private parking spaces. I have at times thought about signing mine, but since no others have, I thought I would leave it.

We require both spaces. They are privately owned as is actually the whole cul-de-sac road at my end and is not council maintained, further up it is.

Tobyjugg · 03/02/2015 19:16

If it's a public highway and your vehicle is taxed, MOT'd (if necessary) and insured, and you are not causing an obstruction, they can't stop you from parking there.

Andrewofgg · 03/02/2015 19:16

Cheese In that case you should club together and pay for signs saying it is a private road and not open to the public.

AttilaTheMeerkat · 03/02/2015 19:17

I am simply suggesting that if the OP is having problems parking, it should be brought to the management's attention. I also realise they cannot magic up extra spaces.

CheeseandPickledOnion · 03/02/2015 19:19

Which is what Attila described. You are parking in a private residential space I highly suspect, hence the note. Your lucky your not in my space, I've blocked people in and left no note before.

It should be very clear to most people those are not public on street parking spaces.

Original poster
ashmts · 03/02/2015 19:21

marmalade that's how I feel! I'm torn between being so embarrassed I never go back and wanting to find out if it definitely is a public road and then go back and park.

Had a look on just park, nothing within a mile. The annoying thing is I could park in the main car park or loading bay spaces. I'd get a ticket but it's a private company and not enforceable (maybe only under scottish law). So this has happened cos I've tried not to break the rules.

OP posts:
CheeseandPickledOnion · 03/02/2015 19:21

Why Andrew? You have to physically drive into my road off a main road and park up in a small parking bay at the back for my secondary space. It is bloody clear that is not on street parking.

Andrewofgg · 03/02/2015 19:22

A lot of residents like to pretend that their roads are private - especially when it is a cul-de-sac - when it is not. If it is not and is not in a CPZ it is open house.

Glittertwins · 03/02/2015 19:22

Just out of interest have you checked for notices stating residents only? Our road has two large signs at the entrance of the cul de sac only they are quite high up so nobody thinks to look at these two grey poles. There are also smaller signs on the lamp posts and bizarrely people park right next to the sign and still complain they get a ticket.

Our road was dangerously blocked by commuters not wanting to pay for parking so I don't mind the permits only as much these days.

CheeseandPickledOnion · 03/02/2015 19:24
  • main street and further side street, then into my road leading to the cul-de-sac.

Park on the road up the top sure. It's very clear ours are private spaces as it what the OP described.

CheeseandPickledOnion · 03/02/2015 19:25

Andrew, I recently paid for the deeds for 6 of the houses in my street to deal with a parking issue and have this as proof. I'm not ill informed as to what I or my neighbors own in terms of land.

AttilaTheMeerkat · 03/02/2015 19:26

Keep looking ashmts, new listings are constantly added.

You cannot be the only staff member to be having such problems with parking, this is also why I would flag this problem up now with your employers.