Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to park my car on a residential street for two weeks and walk two miles to the airport

411 replies

suzzieanneba46 · 05/03/2015 15:11

Is any there anything legally / morally wrong with this? I would save almost 50 just for a short walk..

OP posts:
ZoomZoomToTheMoon · 06/03/2015 17:48

I really don't get why leaving your car in a public parking space equals "treating it like your private parking space". No, it's treating it like a public parking space!

Treating it like your private parking space is huffing and puffing about anyone who dares to park there when they have every right to!

SirChenjin · 06/03/2015 17:49

Because you're leaving your car in place for a fortnight - you're using a space for that time that no-one else then has the opportunity to use. It's become your private space.

Collaborate · 06/03/2015 17:50

People seem to be confusing finding something an inconvenience and finding something irritating.
The thought that people simply don't want to look at another car out of their front window is an irritation (to some).
The thought that you might have to walk (shock horror) a few yards extra to your front door is an inconvenience.
I have little time for people who have a problem with the above. I find their posts an irritation. Should they therefore stop posting on this thread? Of course not.
I do think Stephen Fry's comments on causing offence can be applied to this debate:
“It's now very common to hear people say, 'I'm rather offended by that.' As if that gives them certain rights. It's actually nothing more... than a whine. 'I find that offensive.' It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. 'I am offended by that.' Well, so fucking what."

Those of us who aren't bothered by people parking in front of our own houses will never understand people who are. Ever. Don't expect us to care.

twofingerstoGideon · 06/03/2015 17:51

Bollocks to you, too, sirchenjin. You clearly think you know me better than I know myself.

twofingerstoGideon · 06/03/2015 17:52

Quite so, collaborate.

SirChenjin · 06/03/2015 17:52

Why would anyone expect you to care? Or even be the slightest bit bothered if you care?

TSSDNCOP · 06/03/2015 17:54

Just get on and do it OP. But promise you'll take before and after pics of the car.

I suggest you do a private vs. state school question for your next AIBU.

RingtheBells · 06/03/2015 17:54

So if someone lives on a street with no off road parking and goes away and leaves their car outside their house for 2 weeks are they depriving others of that place and it has now become their private space.

twofingerstoGideon · 06/03/2015 17:57

Apparently, ringthebells! Go figure.

tiggytape · 06/03/2015 17:58

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Collaborate · 06/03/2015 18:00

Serious question here. To those who think the OP shouldn't park outside someone else's house.
What do you do if you can't park outside your own house? Do you ask permission of the house you do park in front of? Or do you just park as close to your house as you legally can?

Claybury · 06/03/2015 18:02

Parking is often a weirdly emotive issue.
Surely saving £50 is hardly worth it - what is the 2 week holiday costing !?

I live in a road of terraces. Parking is always tight. Don't get me started on the bloke who parks his ugly tall van outside my house. Yes I know he's legally entitled to .....

ilovesooty · 06/03/2015 18:03

I said I didn't even expect to park in my own street as a matter of course - let alone outside my house. I don't think it's unreasonable to consider it inconvenient if I were unable to park anywhere on the street where I live for two weeks because people have parked there to save money. Yes, I have legs. I also have shopping and work equipment to carry, sometimes quite late at night. If I have to carry that for anything up to half a mile now and again I accept that. I don't think it's reasonable to expect me to be happy about doing it for two weeks to accommodate the likes of the OP.
And no one has answered why, if it's a business trip she isn't able to claim the costs of parking or transport.

Abraid2 · 06/03/2015 18:04

I do think Stephen Fry's comments on causing offence can be applied to this debate:
“It's now very common to hear people say, 'I'm rather offended by that.' As if that gives them certain rights. It's actually nothing more... than a whine. 'I find that offensive.' It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. 'I am offended by that.' Well, so fucking what."

Except SF himself has been mightily, splutteringly and publicly offended on occasions.

Claybury · 06/03/2015 18:05

Collaborate- I would park as near to home as I could but move my car once the offending vehicle moves away. Then I can keep an eye on my car, in case the alarm goes off etc.
I would not park outside someone else's house and not move my car for 2 weeks. It's not illegal, just an annoyance.

Horseradishes · 06/03/2015 18:06

Yanbu. Do it OP, you've paid your road tax so why not? Fwiw I live in a road full of cars, I live near a shopping centre, I don't own the road and get angry when shoppers park all day to save money. Presumably the residents near the airport knew it was there when they bought?! If it was a big issue they'd have permit parking after all, councils love to make money

bbcessex · 06/03/2015 18:08

Collaborate - there is a whole world of difference between parking somewhere random for an evening / shopping trip / visit to town, and actually leaving your car in one spot whilst you leave the country for weeks.

Although it's clear people do this, it still astonishes me. I can bet there are none of those people in my close circle of friends, because that would be a personality trait that I wouldn't want to associate with.

ZoomZoomToTheMoon · 06/03/2015 18:09

Also if OP's car is there for two weeks, it won't be in other places, using up other parking spaces, for two weeks.

Having a car isn't a right, it's a luxury (unless you are disabled and therefore you will have your own private space and rightly so, so aren't part of this argument). And having a parking space in an area of public free parking, also isn't a right. Wherever you take up a parking space, someone may be inconvenienced but that is kind of the natural result of having a free parking system.

What about people who have two cars? By this argument they shouldn't be allowed to leave one of those cars parked on their own street, because it's taking more than their share an inconveniencing others.

Collaborate · 06/03/2015 18:14

I live next to a high school. We have parking uses morning and afternoon. The comments of some of my neighbours take my breath away at times.

The state will have paid to surface most people's roads, or at least be responsible now for their maintenance and repair. You can't accept that and then deny society as a whole the right to use the road as you would like to yourself (including leaving it parked when you go on holiday).

ZoomZoomToTheMoon · 06/03/2015 18:23

Do all you naysayers also think that people who aren't from around your parts shouldn't sit and have a picnic in your local park, or dare to frequent your local cafe in case they take your favourite seat? Because it might inconvenience you?

ilovesooty · 06/03/2015 18:25

Of course not. It's not the same thing at all.

ZoomZoomToTheMoon · 06/03/2015 18:32

No it's not the same thing, it's a comparison, hence not the exact same thing, by definition. What's the same is that it's a public space for anyone who wants to use it, whenever they like. If you can get your head round that in relation to other things, then it's hard to see why you can't with this.

ClumsyNinja · 06/03/2015 18:35

OnlyLovers - Someone turned round on your drive and you thought it justified (and funny) to scare them shitless by swearing at them? hmm

My drive was about 60 yards long with a large turning area near the house. Why should I just accept some random blokes driving up it to turn their cars around because they're on the wrong road? I'd no problem with people driving up a few feet before the gates to turn in the road but to drive all the way up to turn is outrageously rude, to my mind.

My pets and children would often be playing there and shouldn't have to dodge random cars.

It wasn't a rare occurrence either!

bbcessex · 06/03/2015 18:39

ClumsyNinja... are there are actually people on here who think it's OK to drive up someone's private drive to turn round? ShockShock

Clearly there are people who are more suited to living in a commune.

Why on earth should anyone be entitled to enter someone's private property that they own and pay to maintain?

OnlyLovers · 06/03/2015 18:44

That's dripfeeding about pets and children, Ninja. I see your point a bit more now BUT I really don't think swearing and being angry is a proportionate reaction.

And bbc, just because people on here are saying they don't go in for getting aggressive with people, it doesn't automatically mean they're all 'more suited to living in a commune' Hmm.