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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:
Boysclothes · 05/03/2015 16:35

Airports aren't usually easy to walk on to.... I wouldn't have a clue how you would safely walk to heathrow, for instance. Every approach is busy dual carriageways with no footpath.

TheCraicDealer · 05/03/2015 16:35

It is morally wrong. If you park somewhere over the course of a day on an evening and then leave, at least the resident would have the opportunity to park there once it's free again. With this you'd be taking up a space for two weeks, two weeks in which someone else's life would be that little bit harder because you wanted to save a bit of money.

bbcessex · 05/03/2015 16:39

I won't even leave my car overnight outside someone else's house overnight as the alarm going off would be a complete nuisance.

That's called consideration.

It is not considerate to leave your car static so it affects others for long periods of time. I guess in your opinion it's okay then if every airport passenger used those roads for airport parking?

OP - sort out proper car parking for your car. Why should your trip impact others?

NerrSnerr · 05/03/2015 16:40

It's not morally wrong to peak your car on a public road.

People can't report a car as abandoned just because people don't like where it's parked!! The police/ council would just laugh at them.

Park there, it's as much your road.

ChunkyPickle · 05/03/2015 16:48

I did. I came back to find all my tires let down, and I'm pretty sure someone had peed on it.

It saved me a fortune (even just for the few days I was away), so a couple of minutes pumping up my tires while loudly discussing how amusing it was with my boyfriend was fine.

I don't see that it's morally wrong. It's a public road, I didn't even park in front of someone's house, but a bit further up on a spot near a small green.

There's no reason to tow a legally parked car - although the steps to determine if a vehicle is abandoned are rather vague it seems (it took us months to get a clearly abandoned vehicle (on bricks, missing bits, had already been there months when we reported it) removed from our road when we were students!

Nomama · 05/03/2015 16:49

I too would report as abandoned. It isn't a horrible thing to do, every now and then they are... and the real owner is grateful!

I suppose people living by train stations and airports have to put up with it though, as it isn't illegal!

And I know what happens when a car is reported as abandoned, the registered keeper is contacted and asked where they think their car is. DH left his outside a work colleague's house while they went to work in London for a week, sharing a work car. I received a call and was asked if I owned said car and where I thought it was.... thankfully I recognised the car (we had only had it for about 3 weeks) and that I had a vague idea where it had been parked. I asked the policeman to thank the 'busybody' who reported it, it was nice to know someone cared.

That person was a Neighbourhood Watch bod, he spoke to DH when he came back and kept an eye on the car for the 6 months they worked in London.

bbcessex · 05/03/2015 16:50

You can park there. It's not illegal. It does give some idea to character though.

The sort of person who does this is self-serving and inconsiderate.
I'm sure those traits probably aren't limited to parking.

feetheart · 05/03/2015 16:52

Well the airport I live about 2 miles from close to is quite easy to walk to :)

I actually wouldn't be that bothered about a car parked considerately in our quiet road, especially as it would annoy the school run drivers who feel it is their right to abandon park all over the pavements/drives/etc twice a day.
(PM me if it's an airport with a Lorraine Chase connection )

Chips1999 · 05/03/2015 16:53

Personally I wouldn't as a work colleague of mine lives near an airport and a car was parked on her road by an airport worker so she let all the tyres down....I'm not saying it was right for her to do that, but I wouldn't take the risk myself! I'd also prefer to use an official car park with CCTV so I know my car is safe or park it at a friends house so they can keep an eye on it whilst I'm away.

Wibblypiglikesbananas · 05/03/2015 16:55

We used to live in SW London. Pils used to park outside ours and get a taxi to Heathrow. Loads of people did in fact.

floridadream · 05/03/2015 16:59

I don't think it's a problem to park on an unrestricted road, but perhaps if you let us know which airport it is, posters can suggest a cheaper way? It only costs me £2pp each way for airport transfers (easyBus) so there might be something like that in your area.

countessmarkyabitch · 05/03/2015 17:03

So those who would report it abandoned, you do realise that nothing will actually happen to the car, don't you? So you're just wasting peoples time.

Nomama · 05/03/2015 17:10

Did I post in invisible ink? Meh!

Andrewofgg · 05/03/2015 17:12

Leave a note on the windscreen saying that the car is but abandoned and when you're back: that will block any attempt to have it towed away by the council. Make sure you are not blocking a drive. Then sod the locals Grin

calmexterior · 05/03/2015 17:12

Nothing wrong with it, not something I'd do though. I'd worry the car wouldn't be there or by keyed by an irate resident. I worry....

It's quite tight too.

Torwood · 05/03/2015 17:14

Well if it's the airport that feetheart is talking about then I definitely wouldn't leave it nearby! Wink

wriggletto · 05/03/2015 17:20

Two miles isn't that close to an airport, to walk with a load of bags. If a car outside my house didn't move for a fortnight, I might idly wonder if it had been stolen in a burglary and abandoned; if someone had gone missing and ditched it before throwing themselves off a bridge; if the owner had parked it, then had an accident at work and the family were wondering where on earth the car was... How are you supposed to know that the owner is in Prague for a fortnight?

AlfieandAnnieRose · 05/03/2015 17:20

When my dad was away once we had 2 policemen come to the house and knock on the door. Dad had left his car in a residential street for around 2 weeks, (think he was getting a coach) and one of the residents had reported it stolen. Nothing more frightening than seeing two policemen walk up your driveway and thinking the worst.

Strictlyison · 05/03/2015 17:21

Cars park outside our house to walk to the tube station, sometimes cars are parked outside my house for a couple of weeks in a row, and I can count on top of my head that on seven occasions over the last 5 years, I've had to call the police because the cars had been a) vandalised ; b) broken into ; c) the bloody alarm kept going off. And yes, I don't have much to worry about in life, but I don't like car alarms going off outside my children's bedroom windows at 2 am. And I don't like having a car outside my house with a brick through the window and WE have to call the police, fill in a report, etc.

On one occasion, a nice BMW stayed outside our house for many days and the kids from the local high school squashed tomatoes on the windshield, wrote on the car with shaving foam, picked the tires with knives. Who had to call the police?

Strictlyison · 05/03/2015 17:25

The cars don't walk to the station, the owners do!

PrincessPilolevuofTONGA · 05/03/2015 17:25

2 weeks parking for £50??? That seems very reasonable. Every time we've had to park at an airport it's been considerably more than that.

BalloonSlayer · 05/03/2015 17:27

How are you supposed to know that the owner is in Prague for a fortnight?

uuurgh! I am another one posting in invisible ink!

You don't know but you guess BECAUSE YOU LIVE NEAR AN AIRPORT

Andrewofgg · 05/03/2015 17:28

Boysclothes you would walk to Hatton Cross tube then Piccadilly Line!

CelticPromise · 05/03/2015 17:30

If people brick windows, let down tyres etc they are the ones who are morally wrong, not whoever parked their car. I think it's fine to park wherever is legal. It is no big deal. And yes I live in a house without off street parking, opposite a school. If I get home at school finishing time I have to park a walk away. Big deal. I don't own the road.

MehsMum · 05/03/2015 17:36

We used to live near a station on a road with horrendous parking - lots of houses without drives, lots of double yellows. I could just about cope with someone going up to London for the day, but when I saw people getting half a ton of luggage out of their car, and carefully checking that all their doors were nicely locked, and heading off down the hill, I thought, 'Selfish buggers!' And I thought 'Selfish buggers!' every time I saw that car for the next fortnight.

What with selfish buggers like them, and selfish buggers round the corner at the top of the road, who either spoke to you or left Little Notes on your car if you parked outside their houses (with plenty of off-road parking), it was no wonder we eventually paved over our pretty little front garden...

Up to you, OP. If there's loads of parking where you plan to leave your car, no problem. If it looks a bit a bit tight for the people who live there, don't be surprised if you get a few death stares.

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