A parking one!

[holidaysareoverated]

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?

Because OP lives on a corner! I doubt she has the ability to see round corners whilst reversing out of her drive, although I could be wrong of course.

That's where a kindly bystander/neighbour etc comes in More. they can see around the corner for her.

Hopefully she is now in a cab/on the bus.

I think that one would therefore have to surmise that there are other cars parked along the pavement obstructing access to the road, or some other sort of obstruction in situ. I don't think the op needs to describe every small detail - she has explained that the only way to exit her drive and get onto the road would necessitate driving some distance along the pavement.

I see no reason to doubt or disbelieve her. If there was a way to get out of her drive safely and onto the road easily, I am certain she would have done it.

According to my council if there is a parking bay across a dropped kerb than a person can legally park across the dropped kerb....so really whilst it doesn't help today that bay needs to be removed asap

Exactly. A neighbour or passer by will see her out and guide pedestrians while she does so. It can't be that hard.

Or, as I said, someone else get the ex. If it doesn't close till 6 maybe their dad can go? Or a friend / relative / neighbour

Do you happen to have any spare nails that you could strategically position behind her tyres?

The dc. Not the ex. That would be weird. Damn phone!!

You're just going to have to back out up the pavement. I've had to do similar on a road with a verge and a blind curve (and Bison!). You just inch inch inch a bit at a time. You won't need to go fast enough that you will hit anyone walking towards you. When you get to the stage where you start blocking the corner, toot your horn a few times as you back up to alert pedestrians and cars around you.

So, whats the outcome?

By now I would definitely have let some air out of her tyres so that she was not able to leave in a hurry and escape a lecture

I guess she's on the nursery run! Wonder how she got there?

Because OP lives on a corner! I doubt she has the ability to see round corners whilst reversing out of her drive, although I could be wrong of course.

So she should be reversing in to the drive and driving out, as per the Highway Code, regardless of the parking problem out there atm.

Yes, perhaps she will next time.

If the car parking bay is still there then according to this the girl has done nothing wrong. Look at section 2.

(2)The first exception is where the vehicle is parked wholly within a designated parking place or any other part of the carriageway where parking is specifically authorised.

A “designated parking place” means a parking place designated by order under section 6, 9, 32(1)(b) or 45 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 (c. 27).

I never said I was afraid to drive over a kerb..

I already said that I can't get to the road without driving some way up the pavement due to other obstructions.

I also believe that I said that even driving forwards out of my driveway would still mean driving around a blind corner on the pavement.

She has a ticket so evidently the parking wardens didn't think she was ok to park there.

In any case she sent her Dad around who knocked and apologised. He was very apologetic even after reading my note where I asked her to use common sense and courtesy when parking in future.

Regardless of what the law specifically says about bays, you have to be a selfish, mindless idiot to think it is ok to block somebody into their own driveway, for an entire day.

Surely the messed up markings, dropped kerb and parked cars on a driveway make it clear circumstances with that bay have changed and it is no longer ok to use?

She shouldn't be driving at all if she has to get daddy to fix her mistakes!

Even if the parking place is still marked, and she was therefore not breaking the Traffic Management Act 2004, she was still probably breaking
The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986:

103. No person in charge of a motor vehicle or trailer shall cause or permit the vehicle to stand on a road so as to cause any unnecessary obstruction of the road.

well its probably only one time in an entire year you have had this problem hardly worth all the stress really

Sent her dad round? Christ.

Her Dad?? Good lord. A wuss as well as a prat.

Did you get to the Nursery?

The police must have got in touch with her and as she was unable to get back herself she sent him to apologise?

The police had got hold of her via the DVLA and she sent her Dad to collect the car. He said she couldn't get out of work which is apparently just a few streets away. Puzzled as to why she didn't park at work really.