It's a parking thread!

[KentMum2008]

It's not me who is potentially BU, and as yet the situation hasn't escalated, but it will....

We live in a small cul de sac, parking is an utter nightmare and consequently a few neighbours have had dropped kerbs installed. The neighbour opposite me had a dropped kerb installed today, but there's a brick wall across their garden and it's still turfed/covered with flowers in pots so until they've knocked that down they obviously can't park on their drive. The drive itself doesn't actually exist yet.

Another neighbour has just parked across the new dropped kerb. It was the last space at this end of the cul de sac. Said neighbour is 18, has just passed his driving test and works in a PRU. He lives with, and is a carer for, his disabled dad, who he takes out in the mornings, and brings home with him after work. I think he goes to a Day centre type place, but the dad is always with him in the car so he needs to park as close as possible. He's an absolute beaut of a young man, and wouldn't say boo to a goose.

Here's the issue. When Dropped Kerb lady comes home, she's going to flip that he's parked there. I heard her chatting away to the guys doing the work saying that she'll 'go to town' on anyone who parks there, even while the wall is still in place. I'm hovering in the kitchen because once she's back it's going to kick off, and poor lovely young neighbour won't know how to deal with her.

Is Dropped Kerb neighbour BU expecting people to leave the space free (and does the law regarding Dropped kerbs stand when there's not actually a drive in place?) or is Lovely Young Neighbour BU for parking there?

And AIBU for being absolutely ready to leap to his defence?! I'm pretty good in confrontational situations, rarely lose my rag etc and I'd like to think if it was my son and I wasn't able to help him out, someone else would be there, even if it was only for a bit of solidarity. The only other neighbour who is indoors is a really quiet woman, in 10 years of living here I've never heard her utter a word to anyone other than her cat and a hedgehog once.

Diagram attached, obvs. Not that it makes things much clearer but it's not a real parking thread without a diagram.

I think it's lovely you're ready to defend him but just be careful it doesn't escalate and you end up being the main person. Make sense??

I think he is BU parking there. Regardless of whether there's a drive or not. However if it was not installed today could it not be that he didn't actually notice?

Keep us posted OP!!

X

Dropping the kerb doesn't mean you own the road - only that you are permitted access via the pavement. Never mind boo I would be using stronger language if someone tried to tell me not to park where he has...

Love that your ready to leap to his defence!

No idea if legally you're in the right but morally you are!

Entirely possible he didn't notice, he'd gone out when the workmen arrived this morning.

I don't plan on getting involved really, but I'd hate to think of him standing there while she's having a rant and him feeling intimidated. She's a pretty overbearing type.
I do genuinely need to paint the fence so if I just happen to be outside when she comes home, I'll keep an ear out for if it sounds like she's actually 'going to town' on him.

you're not your!!

Lovely young man needs to sort a disabled parking space in front of his dads house - sorted. And horrible woman needs to knock her garden wall down pronto to create a parking space

I thought no one is supposed to park across a dropped kerb anyway, as it's a crossing place for wheelchairs and prams, or did I imagine that?

Where's she parked? Because until her stupid wall gets knocked down, she's basically taking up 2 spaces if she's not using her dropped kerb herself.

Can't he get the council to install a disabled space? Hopefully the neighbor he will realise he is genuine and be nice to him :)

I also heard her saying they're doing the work themselves 'when DH has time in the summer' so presumably the wall is not going to be knocked down any time soon!

Do you have to pay to apply to the council for a disabled space? I know money is a bit of an issue for them.

She's not parked anywhere yet, she's not home!

I think I'd advise LYM not to park there just for the sake of peace. Dropped kerbs are usually there for a reason so parking next to one is always a bit dodgy, I reckon - regardless of the actual law.

Check with your local council mangomay, at least if she tears a strip offhim youvan then drop them the suggestion

It depends if she wants it free for wheelchair access or wants to park there herself (in which case she is BU). However she may need it for builders in the near future and it would be neighbourly to avoid it when she is getting work done. Surely this will be a short term problem.

Young mans dad needs disabled parking.

Babbitywabbit I had traffic warden tell me the same thing when I asked him why he was ticketing a car parked across a dropped kerb with no drive (it's a historic dropped kerb which has since had an entire house built on the other side of the pavement).

Interestingly, after a spate of people being ticketed in the same place, there must have been a fair few complaints/ contested tickets as the kerb got raised again next time they were doing the pavements.

But isn't parking across a dropped kerb classed as an obstruction, no matter who does it? I thought it was as much about causing an obstruction to pedestrians as much as anything else?

I did think about knocking to ask him if he knows she's had the kerb dropped, but his dad gets a bit edgy when people knock at the door. I had to pick a parcel up from there once and dad sounded quite stressed. Although I guess me knocking is preferable to Dropped Kerb lady...

X post there.
So really, neither neighbour should be parking across it

But if the purpose of the Dropped Kerb was for a vehicle crossing and not pedestrian access, do the same rules apply? Her husband has a car too and I've no doubt he'll park across it when she's on the drive. He gets home long after she does and always leaves first in the morning.

According to parking threads on here it's not illegal to park over a drive dropped kerb, only to block someone in
As there is no car or drive he is neither blocking anyone in nor blocking access

Has the new dropped kerb been approved by the council?

This has been covered so many times.
A dropped kerb does not reserve a parking space. Its function is to allow a legal crossing of the pavement into an off road parking space.

Yes I think I would give the LYM the heads up that Dropped Kerb Neighbour will likely be on the war path. Agree wth a pp - he needs to organise a disabled space for him and his dad.

You sound like a lovely neighbour to have, btw.

Yep, a whole bunch of residents submitted a joint application to the council. Dropped kerbs everywhere. Which would be fine if they didn't take up an average of 1.5 spaces each. It's supposedly solving our parking woes, but it's potentially going to make them worse, particularly on the road that runs parallel to mine where the road is so narrow that nobody will be able to park on the opposite side of the road to a Dropped Kerb.