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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

A parking one!

374 replies

holidaysareoverated · 29/07/2015 10:02

We have put in a new driveway and the council have dropped the kerb outside. However, they have failed to remove the markings that there used to be a parking space there. The markings are a bit of a mess as the old markings are there alongside the guides the council have put there to show where they are moving the parking space to.

A young girl has come along, parked her car, put her headphones in and walked off in the direction of the town centre. I didn't have time to run out and stop her and the headphones meant shouting after her wouldn't have done any good.

Would I be unreasonable to request that the council send a warden out to give her a ticket?

There is no way that she could have missed that she was parking across our drive. It's large and has a big car parked on it. There were 2 parking spaces there and our drive is bang in the middle... she has parked her small Fiesta in the middle too. So right over the dropped kerb with no attempt to leave any room for access. Had it still been a parking space she would be effectively stopping another car from being able to park there. If she had parked at the beginning or end of the bay we could have still got off our driveway.

So What would you do?

OP posts:
shewillhaveherway · 30/07/2015 01:51

Exit...mine didn't but it will from now on.

I hope tomorrow is a better day for you OP.

wibbleywee · 30/07/2015 02:43

op yanbu for the way you have acted, in fact you have shown remarkable restraint! However imo an awful lot of people are bu towards misssunshine, whether we agree with her or not she has as much as a right as anyone else to state her opinion....

GayByrne · 30/07/2015 07:52

Op don't worry, you didn't do anything wrong. I'm sure if you didn't have to go out you'd leave a note and that would be it.

YANBU.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 30/07/2015 11:10

Butwibbley - her opinion appears to be that, because she would not be cross if someone parked across her drive - because she can walk to a nearby station, and rarely uses her car, the OP should not be cross at being prevented from using her car, when she needs to use it to collect her child from nursery, cannot get her car off the drive without driving up the pavement, has no local help who could get the child for her, cannot afford taxis, and is not fit enough to walk there and back - so entirely different circumstances.

IMO, this makes LilMissSunshine's 'opinion' a load of complete and utter tosh - because it totally ignores ALL the facts given by the OP!!

EvansOvalPiesYumYum · 30/07/2015 11:20

TBF - OP didn't give half the relevant sympathy-inducing information until well into the thread.
By her own admission, she is a nervous driver, yet chooses to reverse onto a main road in a large car from her driveway.

Although this is not an illegal manoeuvre (unless causing danger, which, given the description OP gives of her road, might be the case), surely it would be better to reverse onto the drive and then drive out in a forward-facing manoeuvre. It might have come in handy in this particular instance. I always thought reversing skills to be necessary when in control of a motor vehicle.

It must have been extremely annoying for OP to be partially blocked in, but if parking bays are marked, then I can totally understand the confusion of the young woman parking incorrectly. But, again, by her own admission, she could have got out.

The local Council really needs to address the marking bay situation so it doesn't happen again.

LurkingHusband · 30/07/2015 11:21

Oh for the days of Usenet and killfiles ....

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 30/07/2015 12:02

I thought she could only get out if she reversed along the pavement for some distance - due to other obstructions, Evans.

And given that LilMissSunshine's unsympathetic posts continued long after all the sympathy inducing information had been given, and yet ignored all of these, I think I am right in my opinion that she is behaving like a goady fucker on this thread.

LilMissSunshine9 · 30/07/2015 12:09

Actually my opinion has always been that OP was acting OTT and its just uneccessary to get so worked up over what is clearly a one off incident of being blocked in. If it happened all the time I could sympathise more but was it really worth getting so worked up over it to the point your calling the police over it and wasting their time since they can't so much about it.

Then OP talks about other things going on in her life and even more so what the feck is the point in getting worked up over such a small thing when you have bigger issues. Being stressed whilst pregnant isn't exactly a good thing.

As for what I would do .... that came about because someone asked me how would I like it if they parked across my drive so I answered back.

EvansOvalPiesYumYum · 30/07/2015 12:16

I read it that it was just an awkward angle, SDTG. I couldn't see that there were other obstructions. I think something that could have been overcome by forward driving rather than having to reverse. I may be wrong, of course! I always stand to be corrected Grin

(And yes, of course - still incredibly annoying to be blocked in). Some posters have tried to suggest alternatives for IF it ever were to happen again.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 30/07/2015 12:28

It doesn't MATTER that it was a one-off, LilMissSunshine - because, if the driver hadn't been traced, and her dad hadn't come and moved the car - the OP would not have been able to get her child from nursery!

Do you think that the nursery would not have minded her leaving her child there overnight 'because it was a one-off'?? Of course they would have minded!

The OP said that the driver could have parked so she wasn't obstructing the drive - there was space (as demonstrated when another driver managed to get his car in behind the girl's car, in a spot which would not obstruct the OP's drive at all. She parked like a total twat, and deserved what she got.

Evans - at 13.15, the OP said, "...Even if I had reversed in it still wouldn't be safe to drive out the way I would have to. I'd still have to drive along the pavement and around a corner. If it was a straight road it wouldn't be as much of an issue but it's a corner...", and then at 13.59, she said, "..I can only get out by driving up the pavement...... how is that an ok thing for me to do? Not by just crossing the pavement briefly but by full on driving up the road on the path."

EvansOvalPiesYumYum · 30/07/2015 12:30

Okay, fair enough - I missed that! (Said I was happy to be corrected, and I have been on that point) Smile

KittensOnAPlane · 30/07/2015 12:32

OP - i hate driveway blockers, and i think you were in no way BU by reporting her

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 30/07/2015 12:55

It's easy to miss things on a long thread like this, Evans - and I wasn't pointing out those posts to be arsey - honest.

EvansOvalPiesYumYum · 30/07/2015 13:05

Smile SDTG

BitchBags · 30/07/2015 15:08

This thread is brilliant Grin
glad you got it sorted op and that you managed to get to your DD in time. Sorry you had to put up with some ridiculous replies! Hopefully the council sort out the issue for you soon

Icimoi · 30/07/2015 15:48

I notice that Sunshine has stopped claiming that the parking was legal but hasn't had the grave to acknowledge that she was 100% wrong about that. And that isn't a matter of opinion, that's a matter of fact

LilMissSunshine9 · 30/07/2015 16:01

I haven't stopped at all but considering most here don't understand what the meaning of having an opinion is and think that someone with a different perspective means its perfectly fine to start childish name calling instead isn't worth my time anymore.

Supposed to be adults who know that people will always think differently and have their own opions but that doesn't mean you start swearing at them or calling them all sorts of names it's like people haven't grown up.

GraysAnalogy · 30/07/2015 16:08

my first thought, will people stop saying things like 'she's young she might not know'. That's rubbish. And if someone said that at the other end of the scale (she's old) there'd be cries of racism.

And OP I think you did the right thing.

GraysAnalogy · 30/07/2015 16:09

AGEISM obviously not racism jesus christ phone

KittensOnAPlane · 30/07/2015 16:21

" will people stop saying things like 'she's young she might not know'." agreed

if shes old enough to drive a car, then she's old enough to know where you can and can't park!!

GraysAnalogy · 30/07/2015 16:22

Exactly

AlisonBlunderland · 30/07/2015 16:37

Actually young drivers should have a better idea of where to park since they will have to have done the written test prior to doing full driving test.
As opposed to oldie me who only learnt the stopping distances and road signs!

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 30/07/2015 16:44

LilMissSunshine - when someone's opinion totally ignores all the facts given in the OP, it ceases to have any value.

LilMissSunshine9 · 30/07/2015 17:20

Than u don't understand the definition of an opinion

GraysAnalogy · 30/07/2015 17:42

You can have an opinion but it doesn't mean its right.

I can have the opinion that the sky is pink but everyone knows I'm wrong