We have three cars at home and while we do have a driveway, this is only large enough for one car. We need to use these cars every day to get to and from work and we're all time pressured so we can't have long walks to get to the car in the morning. Parking in our road is very difficult especially as we are close to the train station so commuters use the road for free parking. A few months ago we started putting out traffic cones on the road outside our house, just enough to reserve space for our two cars - before we started doing this these spaces were always being filled and we often had to park a 5 - 10 minute walk away which is not really acceptable, we have important jobs and this is time we can do without wasting.
We have had a couple of arguments with people over the last couple of weeks and some people have been trying to move the cones and we have had notes put through the door and left on the car. We think we have every right - we own the house, live on the road, and therefore we should be able to park outside our own property. A friend suggested reporting it to the local council and they could reserve the space outside just for us and give us a permit, so I am going to call them next week. Has anyone else had any experience with this? I thought it would be perfectly fine, but the recent problems have made me think that maybe we need to get this extra protection.