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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Parking one

167 replies

CatchingBabies · 31/12/2018 16:25

I know the rules so I did 1 better than a diagram, I got a photo.

My car is the grey one in the drive, silver car belongs to next door and grey van belongs to house across the road. They park like this all the time and claim I am not blocked in and I should be able to easily get out.

Am I missing something? My car is reversed back as far as it can go, it’s a narrow new build road so the van means I don’t have room to go out to the right and the car overlapping my drive stops me leaving to the left.

I’m a midwife and do on calls a lot, I am sick of having to knock on doors, which they usually don’t answer, and get someone to move so that I can attend whatever emergency I am being called to.

AIBU?

Parking one
OP posts:
Sexnotgender · 01/01/2019 14:56

Could you realign the edge of your driveway, or add some paving so it comes towards the window more? Meaning if blocked in you could reverse up there and drive out to the right easier if you had to

Yip, that's the solution right there, re landscape your front so that you can get out rather than inconvenience your cheeky fuckers of neighbours parking across your driveway...

MargotMoon · 01/01/2019 15:01

Bet that Audi would stop parking there if you 'accidentally' scraped it a few times trying to get out.

ABigBraclet · 01/01/2019 15:11

I had something similar.
You have to keep the 101 involved, in every instance.
Neighbours will be pig headed to you and argue their right over yours, but they can't bullshit the authorities, so let 101 officers deal with it every single time. It may take a few weeks but it will get better for you.

nottakingthisanymore · 01/01/2019 15:29

Can you park half on your drive and half off- ie about 3feet further forward. Audi is out of order. Every time they park there I would knock and ask them to move. Even if I wasn’t going out. I’d just pretend I was. Perhaps they’d get message then.

Eliza9917 · 01/01/2019 15:45

Do you have local/estate FB pages? Put pictures on there and shame them publicly.

Also, when called out in the middle of the night, call the police loudly in the middle of the street so the rest of the neighbors know what they are doing.

figelnarage · 01/01/2019 15:49

What happened last night when you left your car slightly over the edge of your drive?

ChrisjenAvasarala · 01/01/2019 15:55

@Ginger1982

I had a car at 17 and actually needed it. My school had no one willing/qualified/able to teach advanced higher physics. The school in the next town taught that subject. There were 4 of us who wanted to sit that subject so the other school agreed to have us for that lesson so I had to drive the 4 of us to that school for the class (double periods between break and lunch or after lunch until the end of the day so we always drove during morning break, lunch time or home time). Without my car, we couldn't have sat that subject as the school wouldn't pay for taxis.

Dimsumlosesum · 01/01/2019 15:58

@ginger1982 yes I needed a car as my dad died, my nan was on her own developing severe dementia an hour and a half away, it took 4 hours switching between walking between bus stops, switching three trains, to get to her. I also worked 2 jobs, and the trains were shit as I lived in a small village and they'd just send them through if delayed, meaning I had to get up 3 hours earlier just in case one or even two trains got cancelled. No buses on a Sunday, mother was a drunk so couldn't afford taxis.

Tistheseason17 · 01/01/2019 15:59

2 options

  1. Park across your own drive so you are not blocked in. Not totally across - just park how they did so you can reverse into your own drive to turn if you need to.
  2. Your police force has a facility to report non-urgent stuff online. Upload the picture, explain your need to get out for medical emergencies, explain your repeated friendly requests and ask them to have a polite word.

Your neighbour will not like either of the above but they are in the wrong and you have tried to be nice.

BruceAndNosh · 01/01/2019 16:23

I assume CF Audi owner has 2 cars and only a 1 car drive.
Can you intentionally park right across his drive, blocking their other car in?
Give him a taste of his own medicine.

anewyear · 01/01/2019 17:15

ginger1982
I get what your saying, but in some/most cases (as I said) it not as easy as "public transport"
By the way, Do you have 17-20 year olds?
Would you be willing to move, as and when they get cars, if there's not enough room on Kyour drive way?

IsThatYou · 01/01/2019 17:35

As others have said the Audi driver is a C.F..
Do they have a driveway.... if so, you know the solution.

Original poster
CatchingBabies · 01/01/2019 18:13

They didn’t return home at all last night so my parking efforts were wasted, I’ve just finished work now so will see how they are parked when I get back.

While I understand the comments about accidentally scratching the car / letting the tires down etc. are meant as a joke, it being an emergency doesn’t prevent me from prosecution for criminal damage as midwifery is not legally classed as an emergency service. A conviction also would not go down well with the NMC.

Those shocked that I asked the van to move when CF next door told me to, I needed to attend a home birth and went for the path of least resistance as I didn’t have time to argue over who was right I just needed out.

I have ordered myself a vistaprint sign saying “midwife on call, please do not block in” to display in my car and I’ve also posted a note through neighbours door this morning explaining that they are illegally blocking my drive and the potential consequences of this. Wether it will make a difference I don’t know but I have said I am now starting to photograph and log all events and will take it further so hopefully it puts them off.

The annoying thing is they could simply park across their own drive (or put 1 car in their garage) and have plenty of room but the drive is around the back of the house so it seems they have decided it’s easier to block me in.

OP posts:
Original poster
CatchingBabies · 01/01/2019 18:13

And after a Boxing Day crash the last thing I need right now is another insurance claim so I’d be wary of blocking them in / their drive.

OP posts:
Santaisfastasleepatlast · 01/01/2019 18:25

A friend's ndn admitted he parked over her drive as he didn't want to see his car through his window while watching TV!!

Bunnyfuller · 01/01/2019 18:27

The police won’t get involved in a parking dispute, so save your effort on the 101 thing. The only way the police would get involved is if it escalated to a neighbour dispute and there were reports of public order offences. It is illegal to block someone’s access to the public highway, but doubt there’s a force with the resource to enforce.

Your letter is a good idea, I would definitely try to keep it civil and also speak to the van owner. It’s shit these new builds don’t apportion enough space for the number of vehicles people have. It also annoying your neighbours don’t want the hassle of moving cars around/using their garage as a garage but it’s a very common problem.

After a 5 year vendetta from a couple who lived opposite, which basically all started from the same parking as you’re struggling with I’m afraid just over a year ago we moved away. To the opposite end of the county and not on a new estate with very ample parking. It got very nasty.

Good luck, OP. I was volunteering for ambulance service for 3 years and had an 8-min target to get to the patient, with no blues and twos!

The neighbours had no fucks to give. Selfish fuckers. I’m still bitter about it and part of me would love to get an old shit banger and abandon it on their drive!

ABigBraclet · 01/01/2019 18:31

101 got involved with us. Community officers went round and repeatedly spoke to our neighbours.

HannahnotAgnes · 01/01/2019 18:32

That's shocking Op - hope they read your note & decide to stop being cheeky fuckers!

DointItForTheKids · 01/01/2019 18:58

101 got involved with me too and it wasn't even a longstanding event. I contacted my local police force through their web chat. I explained someone cretin was parking 50% of the way across the in/out entrance/exit to a car park to a block of flats opposite, just also effectively making it difficult for vehicles in the houses opposite (which have a short driveway, one of which being mine) to reverse back in the pitch black of a 6 am morning. In my case there is also a pedestrian walkway which makes it even more dangerous.

They added a check for the vehicle to the officer's daily list of 'calls'. So they do take it seriously especially if you can state the difficulty and danger it's creating to other road users / pedestrians (and the man with the van shouldn't be parking on the bloody pavement either - great for people with prams or in a wheelchair - again, totally inconsiderate and selfish).

It's certainly worth logging it with them.

Paradyning · 01/01/2019 19:43

Don't mean to derail but Cretin is quite an offensive term for those of us with disabled children, PP.

Paradyning · 01/01/2019 19:44

The use of Cunt is far more acceptable Grin

selepele · 01/01/2019 19:46

That would annoy me

Ginger1982 · 01/01/2019 19:49

Anewyear not yet, but I'd like to think that if I was illegally blocking someone in all the time because my own land couldn't accommodate all the cars that I wouldn't be so selfish as to just shrug my shoulders and say 'but we all need cars.'

Yulebealrite · 01/01/2019 19:57

Would the police be interested in persistent parking half way on a path?

1Redacted1 · 01/01/2019 19:58

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

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