To think that this isn't legal? (Parking thread!)

[SpaceDinosaur]

Shamelessly inspired by Jenna's thread and diagrams but no way as bad of a situation. None the less...

My new home has off street parking for 3 cars. DH and I take two spaces and my DM comes over to look after DD when I work... also friends etc, you get the general idea, we use all three spaces. The amazing driveway was a massive selling point of the house.

We also live near to a Faith school. I mention faith because I fully appreciate that parents wanting their child to attend may need to travel further as it's the only school of its denomination for a very large distance. So these parents will more often than not drive.

We knew that school drop off and pick up times would be busy. We fully anticipated some cheeky parking. It's not a big issue to me if it's 10 minutes twice a day.

Earlier this week a vehicle parked over our drive, blocking two cars in, for almost 3 hours. I was livid.

So here is my question. The dropped curbs are not across the whole drive. But the parking blocked our vehicles from leaving. I was under the impression that blocking a vehicle on a property was not legal. AIBU?

Diagram 1 is the houses. The dropped kerbs are shown in red

Diagram 2 is how parents usually park as school drop off

Diagram 3 is what happened earlier this week.

@happypoobum the purple bit is the pavement.
The red lines are the part which is dropped.
The parents are all parking with most of their vehicles on the pavement

The road in front of your house doesn’t belong to you so I’m not sure why your need to park three cars outweighs their need to park one. Hopefully your request to extend the dropped kerb will be refused.

Can’t you park facing the other way? Or have two parallel to the house and your mother park perpendicular to them when she needs the space. Or, god forbid, park on the road.

Not great parking but if not blocking a dropped kerb then it's not illegal. Your council may be willing to take action about parking on the pavement, though - you could check.

I honestly can’t see how that is arseholish parking. You weren’t blocked in because no one had parked over your dropped kerb.

I see - thanks for update!! Well they shouldn't be parking on the pavement anyway should they?

And I love a parking thread as much as the next person. I wanted to be outraged.. it just isn’t doing it for me 😂

I hate to say it but not only is the parking legal, but unless you are using the dropped kerb, it is likely illegal for you to drive across the pavement onto your property.

They are parking legally.

We have a similar situation at work, large yard, only part of the entrance is dropped curb. (Except in our case the non dropped bit is double yellows so it is illegal to park there.)

We manoevre cars so that we only arrive and leave on the dopped curb bit, not the non dropped bit. Thats what you should have done.

Isn't it illegal to drive over curbs that aren't dropped?

@JammieCodger "hopefully your request will be refused"
Why?

Yes, of course we can park on the road. On the spaces the parents utilise, leaving free space on our property. But as a parent who is considerate when they park, how would that make you feel?

And I know I don't own the road, if I did there would be fewer pot holes, better drive thrus (because Mc Cafe whilst the baby naps is not good) and I'd also colour code some roads too. Just so they looked less boring!

We applied for the drop to be extended across the whole double yellow bit. We have been refused.

We have a similar situation in that we have a 'drive' which is 3 cars wide but a dropped kerb which is only 2 cars wide. Anyone can park over the non-dropped area totally legally.

We don't drive over the non dropped area, when the pavement isn't blocked by parents parking their cars up there it's easy to access

They were parked perfectly legally not sure why they are arseholes.

If they are parked on the pavement then they are illegally parked

You must drive over the pavement yourself to get to that last spot on your drive though, OP, if cars are already on the drive?

So how were you blocked from leaving? I assumed that it was because you exit over the undropped kerb, but if you only drive over the dropped bit, your diagram shows it's clear.

If they are parked on the pavement then they are illegally parked

Depends completely on local byelaws.

Pavement parking probably against bylaws. Photograph and report.

They were parked blocking a pavement, for that reason alone they were arseholes.

If they were parked on the pavement then they were in the wrong.
If they were parked next to the pavement they were not.

Pavement parking probably against bylaws.

Not necessarily.

They were parked blocking a pavement, for that reason alone they were arseholes.

They might be 2 foot onto a 12 foot wide pavement.

We don't drive over the non dropped area, when the pavement isn't blocked by parents parking their cars up there it's easy to access
Right, so, it’s not really parking in front of where your cars are then , it’s the fact they parked so far on the pavement that you couldn’t manoeuvre off the dropped section? And unless you live in London, parking on the pavement isn’t illegal. Twattish but not illegal. I wouldn’t have done it but some people don’t give a toss about anyone except themselves.

I may be wrong but from what I understand if your are blocking cars Ona drive you're wrong. If your drive had been empty then they could have parked there.