AIBU to be fed up of people using my drive as a car park for the shop opposite?

[SweetTeaVodka]

I live in a terrace directly opposite the a local convenience store of a larger national supermarket. The shop has a large car park directly behind it and a bus stop directly out front. We have people park on our often empty drive to pop across to the shop on occasion (happens once or twice a month), and more often to pull up along the dropped curb.

The parking along the dropped curb doesn't really bother me, but the driving right up onto our driveway does. Especially in the evening/dark rainy days when my whole lounge is lit up by their bloody lights. Poor DD gets excited because she thinks one of her grandparents or aunts has come to visit, and my anxiety disorder means I get a bit on edge in case it's guests I'm not expecting.

Today it has been pissing it down all evening. Three times this afternoon we have had people stop on our drive and go across to Tesco, the third lot was a carful of very noisy young people (typing that makes me feel old) who looked quite taken aback when I opened my front door and informed them that they seemed to have mistaken my drive for the shop car park (I was very wound up by this point and did swear a bit).

I don't think it actually saves much time or saves them from getting that wet when you account for the amount of time you generally have to spent waiting to be able to safely cross the road to the shop, compared to walking round from the car park at the back to the front.

AIBU to a) think it's actually quite rude to park on someone's driveway if you are not a resident or visitor of the property;

b) complain at the people who do this;

and c) considering blocking my drive with plastic cones and a passive aggressive sign and/or complaining to the shop manager about their customers

I accept that I may be U to get so riled by this and it is probably due to my anxiety issues, but I am home alone with toddler DD until DH gets home from work this evening and I needed to vent.

rightup to your loung window? excellent. put sign on window about not parking on drive. (blame small child who chucks things out of windows.) when they park and leave open lounge window and chuck stuff out onto bonnet.

get a white chalk pen and draw some lovely scratches downthe side of the car.... it wipes off easily but they will be worried for a bit. or if they all goi in the shop, get a rock or something and place near back tyres... especially if dark, they will not know they did not see it when they drove on.

OmG! I'm pmsl @ Yarburgh

False imprisonment? ? Surely that only applies to people nor cars

I think a big sign in the window could be the solution. You don't want to be bothered with bollards or chains. Also calling the store with the reg every time or tweeting it to them so they help you prevent it in future.

This isn't the the supermarkets problem, I don't see why they should pay out for their incompetent customers.

Sorry if it was covered earlier, but is there any reason why you can't install a boundary fence between you and the neighbours garden and a gate?

You should be bothered about people parking on the drop kerb, this is breaking the law! Contact your local neighbourhood policing team to see if they can come up with any suggestions to help.

Of course it's the supermarket's problem, the issue wouldn't arise but for the fact that the supermarket is there. Apart from anything else, if they want to put any more shops like this into residential areas they would have difficulty with planning permission if it could be shown that they were in the habit of putting two fingers up at neighbours whose drives get used for parking. And it would soon enough become a greater problem if OP phones every time this happens to get them to tannoy the offending customer.

Can you get the phone number of the Tesco - speak to the manager. Phone them every time and get them to do a call out. Every time You wouldn't need to leave the house.

But if you did want to have some fun, you could make a Guy Fawkes dummy and throw it under the wheels of the car. Stick some glow in the dark halloween eyes in your front room window.

Yarburgh is a village in Lincolnshire.

Surprised no-one's thought about this, but what about a few of those giant ASDA gnomes across the driveway? (if you can still get them that is!) They're huge and bloody obvious, but light enough to repeatedly move....and are also an amusing way of making the point that your drive is not an extension of Tesco!

Tesco will argue they provide sufficient parking for their customers and that they have no control over where they park, which would be correct.

A tannoy every time will annoy the staff who work there but I would imagine they'll get a response such as "I'm almost finished,I'm leaving in a minute anyway" and it'll be left at that. It's not going to stop people parking there is it. The opportunity needs to be removed. Tesco won't pay for this.

The wheelbarrow idea sounds like a good cheap solution, if they're that lazy that they can't be bothered to walk around from the back of tesco then they certainly won't want to get out of the car to move the barrow out of the way!

They park there because it's convenient for them. The only way they'll stop is if you make it massively more inconvenient by blocking them in in some way and making them wait for an hour or so.

People are constantly parking across the end of our cul de sac to pop into the corner shop, thus potentially blocking 36 households in.

Can you get one of those amazing Street artists to do a painting on your drive? So it looks as if people would be drivING into the grand canyon??

Like this:

4.bp.blogspot.com/-IliQjVU1mBw/T3_EAKyKMlI/AAAAAAAAAFc/fDHbVaL3G6I/s1600/3d-street-art1.jpg.scaled1000.jpg

Don't know if they exist, but you could do with some of those traffic control plates that you see on carpark entrances (that allow traffic to go one way only). You'd have to have some convenient way of switching them off so that you can not only drive on to your drive but also drive off, but imagine what fun you could have! Leave for work in the morning and come home every day to find an irate shopper stuck on your drive!

Tesco will argue they provide sufficient parking for their customers and that they have no control over where they park, which would be correct.

I doubt it. On most occasions when they want to build a new store in a residential area they have to get planning permission. Every time they apply, there is a strong chance that local residents will object, citing traffic and parking congestion. If they publicly argue in a situation like this that local parking is none of their business and they have no duty to help local residents, it will be brought up at any subsequent planning inquiry and seriously bugger their chances.

Nor, of course, do they particularly want to be pilloried in local papers as being uninterested in their neighbours' welfare. Tesco's are struggling enough anyway without actively antagonising local customers.

In the area where I live and also where I work there has been several cases in the last few years where local communities have strongly contested planning permission for the big chains to open a local store....often on the grounds of the impact on local residents, but supermarket firm always wins regardless!

Simple but nasty :
Once the car has parked and the driver walked away, pop two bricks behind the wheels nearest to your house.

They will come back, try to pull away and get nowhere.

Then you have time to stand next to the car, ask them to turn the engine off while you remove the bricks and invite them not to park there again.

You need zero tolerance as it is probably the same repeat offenders

I am liking the super soaker idea. Open window, douse car.

There's stuff you can buy to scare off foxes - Scat or something similar. You mix it with water. Smells vile. If you aim directly for the grill in front of the windscreen it will smell lovely inside the car for weeks every time the engine heats up...

fecking asda van parked in our drive and blocked in 56 flats. bloody asda. driver refused to move it too.

Yarburgh!
You could make a frame and hang curtains made of this fabric at the front of your drive for DH to drive through?

Like most large organisations tesco has a CSR policy. From their web site:

Community Champions act as ambassadors for Tesco within their area, working to ensure that we are a great neighbour that can bring genuine benefit to the local community. They work with their Store Manager and other shops in the region to shape how Tesco can get involved in local community events, providing support where it is most needed.

So yes they do have a responsibility to be good neighbours. Contact them.

YARBURG

Sorry I haven't been back, busy at work and with family obligations. I do have an update though:

I haven't caught any more Tesco shoppers on the drive, but then I was out of the house 14 hours Thurs and Fri and visiting relatives yesterday.

On Thursday our new next door neighbours moved in (to the only house on this terrace without a drive, refer to the diagram previously posted) and spent the day knocking down their front wall, they have since been parking on their front lawn.

When DH arrived home from work there was a car on our drive that had been there long enough to be dry on the drive underneath (we had a rainy spell late morning). As we were stood on the drive discussing if we should call the police on the non-emergency number as surely it was trespass, new neighbour and his friend came dlying out of their house. Apparently it's ok because the owner of the car was visiting next door. Tried to explain to him that it was not ok to just presume he could park on our property, that if they had asked if our drive would be free we may have considered offering the use of it during the set hours it is free, but now we were disinclined to allow this even if asked nicely. He kept repeating that it was OK as he was only next door and only visiting, but did move his car.

It seems that either new neighbour has a surplus of rude friends/relatives or has been telling his visitors to park there as it has happened again this afternoon. So my new neighbour has been moved in all of 4 days and we've already had two rows over their visitors parking on our drive.

Wheely bins have now taken up residence on our drive in lieu of a more permanent solution to be decided, but new neighbour took that as an invitation to put his rubbish in our bins rageful sobbing chose not to knock on the door and have a 3rd argument, just returned the trash to his property (bubble wrap, broken down cardboard and paint tins, so although I didn't see him put them there I'm fairly confident it's him).

I seem to be living in a neighbourhood awash with rude, selfish twats, because Wednesday nights culprits were definitely unrelated to new neighbour, I witnessed them go to or return from Tesco. What is wrong with all these people?!

For those who have suggested contacting the council, would white lines make a difference? The road is already double yellows but that doesn't stop loads of people stopping there. And when I say stopping across the dropped kerb doesn't bother me, it's because that feels a lot less invasive than parking on my drive. Still, might see of the traffic wardens are interested in swinging by, because I have a fair bit of rage that needs directing and would probably be satisfied by watching from the lounge window as people get ticketed.

As to why we can't install a fence/wall and gate, well we can but the time and money is what is stopping it being an immediate solution. I'm not sure I'm up to the task of installing such myself at present (hyperemesis pregnancy), and DH hates any sort of DIY/construction, so it would be a case of saving the money up for something.

I do like the idea of a decorative wheelbarrow or similar. Would certainly be a prettier view than the bins!

That's awful that they already think they can use your driveway as an overflow car park!!!