Neighbor parking dispute

[Pit84]

Hi guys,

There is a bit of a sticky parking situation in my neighborhood.
A bit of background info,

We live in a very rural area in the middle of nowhere where most of the houses in our village have turned their front garden into a driveway. Me and two of our neighbors houses are connected to the village road with no pavements. So the only way to park is on a bus stop that is directly in front of us (The council have encouraged us to use the bus space as there is physically no where to park and have even put some lines down to try and separate it from the village road, the bus only comes a few times a day which no one uses) Our new neighbor has a driveway but doesn't have a drop down kerb, they have to drive over the 'bus stop' to get into their 'driveway'. Me and my DH have a car each as does our lodger, our other neighbor have 5 cars as their 3 adult kids (late teens and early 20's) have one each as the bus service is non existent and they all have full time jobs, as well as unlikely being able to move out due to living in South England. My neighbor who have a driveway wants plenty of space to reverse their car out, there is just enough space to fit everyone's car in, however the neighbor with the driveway always wants a car moved so they can reverse out. Everyone always gives them enough space (not tones of spaces, but absolutely enough so they can get out) This then means one of two cars have to literally be moved onto the village road so they can have the amount of space they want.

Sorry this is so long lol, but I hope your getting the picture.
Whos in the right and whos in the wrong?
I don't know if this affects anything, but me and my neighbor live in council houses, where as the house that has a driveway is owned by themselves.
What can we do or is there literally nothing?
We have tried turning our front garden into a driveway however there is water pipes all in our front garden.

Many thanks for any advice
x

I agree with 3littlefrogs
She should be reversing into her drive so she can drive out

I think you and your other neighbour, who between you have eight cars and limited parking, are the ones who need to start parking further away/reducing the number of cars you have. Your neighbour is already being nice by parking off the road on her 'driveway'. I am sorry but she's bought a house that fits her parking needs and is being inconvenienced by her nieighbours. At minimum I would ask your lodger to not park in your road as it upsets the neighbours.

Your neighbour has an has an "informal " driveway and parks all of their 5 cars off road
you park across their house blocking her in as the
curb is raised across her informal driveway
Not only is the curb raised but it leads onto a bus stop
You won't use your own garden as an informal driveway because of water pipes
The water pipes are either the same height in your neighbours Gardens or under the road, but you happily park / drive there
Yabu

Unless I misunderstood any of those facts ?

Can you draw a plan so we can visualise the problem better? At the moment it's hard to advise.

New to MN and with a parking thread? Brilliant!

... and YABVVU for even raising the issue of them being council tenants.

Perhaps you should have added in something about them being on benefits as well?

A bus stop big enough for eight cars? Really?

BIWI
The op is a council tenant.
As is the neighbour with 5 cars
The neighbour parking on her garden is not

665, as I read it, no-one parks across the neighbours' driveway: they leave enough room for her to get out, but she wants more, hence the fact that she asks everyone to move.

I think you're wrong on two counts:

1. You say you could park in front of her drive and she thinks she is entitled to all of the space in front of her drive - she IS entitled to this and you can't park over her boundary at all

1. I think you and your neighbour have too many cars and should be parking further away from both your properties. I appreciate you have no further options outside your house but I guess there are options 5 minutes walk away. 8 cars parked in a bus stop sounds like an eyesore.

I think the neighbour should give up on her drive and just park in front of her house. She only has one car, the rest of you seem to have too many for the size of house and the place you live.

It sounds frustrating but you and your neighbour are parking EIGHT cars between you?
I grew up in a similarly rural situation (the one bus each way got me to college each day) and getting out of our driveway (forwards) was actually really awkward when the neighbour would park their car on the end of their house next to the drive; made visibility on a small, pavementless road very difficult.

I feel a bit sorry for the neighbour. 8 cars between 2 houses?! How are you allowed a lodger in a council property? If your houses are similar,couldn't you use your front garden like she does? Do the water pipes just go under yours,not hers?
God I bloody love a parking thread.

Tell her to take it up with the council - it seems that they might be able to offer her some suggestions.

I hope she pays to drop her curb. Then she can use her driveway, you will not be able to park in front of her house at all and she won't need to keep asking you to move your cars.

Then you're even more screwed - so maybe play nicely.

665 clearly hadn't had her coffee at the time of posting. I don't think it is possible to misunderstand the actual scenario more!

there do seem to be a neighbour more in there than I accounted for !
making 9 cars

but blocking in and blaming other peoples driving skills, insistence that their garden is unusable because of pipework that dosnt affect anyone else - blocking access and blaming other peoples driving skills - raised curbs as points of order.....not all that wrong really -

you were right about the coffee though!

If she physically can get out just say that to her. Stop pandering. None of you should be doing what you're doing so I wouldn't say any of your choices trump the others.

She should definitely be reversing in and driving out. It clearly says it in the highway code. There must be somewhere else you can park. It is selfish to have 8 cars between 2 houses. When I lived at home we had 4 cars and we always parked 2 of them away from the house to not annoy our neighbours. It doesn't sound like she has any legal rights as it isn't a proper drive with a dropped kerb but it's unneighbourly to block her in.

Does the drive neighbour literally have room for one car? Curious as to what happens when someone has visitors/tradesmen? Is it a single track road?

I should be reversing into my drive. However the house opposite have 8 vehicles currently (yup, 8 amongst 2 adults) and they don't park more than 4 on their enormous drive (they could park all 8 but choose not to as they can't be bothered to jig them about). When they have four on the road they park opposite my house bumper to bumper.

Little old lady next door parks up to her drive over the pavement if that makes sense.

Basically meaning at times it is completely impossible for me to reverse into my drive. And I am a decent reverser!

I'm trying to imagine a village where there is no other parking available within walking distance and people have 5 cars in one household. What do you all do when you have visitors?

You and your neighbour with 5 cars really need to look at whereas you can park within a 5-10 minute walk and use part of the bus stop area as a drop off/pick up zone for your houses

Depending on the vehicles the visibility could be very poor with that many cars parked close to the driveway

I think I agree with some of you with the reversing in and driving out idea. I live in a very very small village where surrounded by miles of fields so if I did park anywhere else 5-10 mins away it would just cause a dispute with someone else. Also for some people commenting about her visability..etc, she reverses out just like all of us as she's reserves on to the bus stop and therefore the exactly same visability as us. Thanks for everyone's advice, I may end it here as it seems some people are getting a little confused with my situation as it's very hard to explain the lay out of the roads..etc but thank you

Ah... I can see why turning the front gardens into driveways is prohibitively expensive (as to why the council should consider it - because housing needs change over time, their housing stock should be kept modern and suitable and housing with no parking and forcing people to park in the road is a viable concern they should think about addressing. My local authority changed the front gardens to a street full of flats when it became apparent that the estate was clogged with people parking on the road as the flats were built before people who lived in flats might be expected to own two cars)..

I would suggest the council re-assign the current bus stop as parking and get them to mark out the parking spots - that way if everyone is within a parking bay, no one has room to whinge. Then they could just move the bus stop further down the road and put a new pull-in for the bus or area for people to stand if necessary.