To be baffled by obsession over parking

[m0therofdragons]

We live in a small cul de sac and so generally people have 2 cars, one on driveway and one on road outside their home. There's no reason for random people to park here so all is fine. At the end of the road is another road where homes have big driveways so when we have guests they park there and walk down (there are only 7 homes up each side so it's 30seconds walk).

We live in the corner of the cul de sac and have no pavement outside our home just the entrance to 3 driveways so nearest pavement is directly outside neighbour's house. First couple of months living here we parked 2nd car at end of the road and walked down but nobody parked on pavement nearest our home so I started to. For about 14 months all was fine but then neighbour mentioned her son had split from fiancé and is moving home so would be parking there. I naively thought she meant whoever gets home first would have the spot so I said something like "oh yes it's the road so I know we don't own it. I'm sure it'll be fine."

Her son is in the forces so not home often and we've carried on parking there but he's now home and she's parking her car there so he can use the drive. I didn't think much of it - yes it's nice to park outside my house with 3dc but they are primary age and capable of walking, although I did notice she's around more than usual (but her son is home so didn't question it).

Other neighbour has just told me that my neighbour has told her how cross she is that we "steal her space" and she's had to change her work hours to ensure she gets home before me so she can get parked there!

I'm planning to ignore the crazy and carry on smiling and calling out hello. Although I don't mind walking down the road, if the space is there then I'll park there. She is a very large lady so I appreciate she cannot walk far but her son is perfectly fit and able late 20s so she can use her drive and he can park and walk 30 seconds occasionally.

Sorry for the essay. I can't imagine changing my working hours for a parking space!

@m0therofdragons I know who’d have thought anyone would do that! Hopefully your neighbour won’t be so vengeful, carry on parking where you like so long as it’s legal.

mrex if they park across your driveway again log it with 101 or call the police, then calm down with a spa day, tbh you sound like a real loon, but then you know that.

I once got threatened by a guy and his whole family for parking a taxi van legally near their house in a parking space that was free for anyone to use.
My boss was less than understanding when I informed her about the situation, but still expected me to keep the van near my house despite the shortage in available parking spaces in my street. I quit my job that same day.

Meandyouandonlyme Fucking hell that is so dangerous! You can get motion activated dashcams for front and back - so it will trigger even when the car is parked up. I saw them mentioned on another thread recently and they are on Amazon and not expensive.

We had parking issues like this at our last place and when we came to house hunt a driveway big enough for both of our cars was a non-negotiable requirement!

@Meandyouandyouandme my neighbour is seriously large - she wouldn't be able to bend down to reach my tyres

Meandyouandonlyme

What is that thing?

@fecketyfeck21 and take in some ironing, the extra cash could fund the purchase of a bollard

My parents neighbours are parking mental. They have four vehicles. My parents have 1 tiny car. Parking is very tight on the road. My mum has reduced mobility (but not bad enough for a blue badge). They do all they can to claim the two spots outside my parents house... Even though two of the cars belong to teenagers, one in a work van and the other who belongs to a perfectly mobile adult. Nearest alternative parking is often about 100m away.... This included when my mum had a broken leg!

I make it a rule to take no notice of anything relayed to me through another person.

If they won't speak to me direct, then it can't be that important. Also, you don't know how it was said - or even if it was said at all.

Your neighbour should speak to you if she has a problem - and your second neighbour shouldn't be carrying tales for her!

I fell out with one neighbour because of his incessant curtain twitching to monitor parking. Such a weird Little Englander thing and I have no patience for it. Park legally and not like a dick and that should be the end of it.

Your neighbour would combust in our street. There's 8 on street parking places meant for the three houses that don't have driveways and visitors to all the houses. One of our neighbours (who is inconsiderate in about fifty different ways) has a drive way that fits 4 cars, the previous occupants of their house used to squeeze 6 cars on it. Their house has 5 cars (parents cars, one work van and two teens with cars) and they have installed basketball hoops on the driveway and they all park in the spaces on street. There is nothing that can be done as even residents parking would allow them to park there as the council said they wouldn't do a set number of permits per house because of the size differences in the street.

CaptSkippy it’s a screwdriver, it’s about 6.5 inches!

People go bonkers about parking. We have a neighbour who goes nuts about me parking next to my gate because it 'blocks' the drive on the opposite side of the road. It doesn't and it's not even his drive, he's complaining on behalf of a bloke who couldn't care less.

Our road is a country lane with only has 10 houses on it. All of us have drives you can fit multiple cars on and a frontage big enough to fit 4 cars alone. The road ends at the village hall which has a massive car park. 'There is no reason whatsoever for anyone to spend a nano second policing parking. But the bloke next door gets in a right state over it. (Currently there's 1 car parked anywhere on the road or carpark)

ControversialFerret thanks, yes we are going to get some sort of dashcam fitted ASAP.

@MRex - with regards to the actual law I believe it's illegal to block access to the highway but not to your drive. In other words you can legally expect to be able to get off a drive but not onto it.

@fecketyfeck21 - thanks, I have indeed acknowledged it's slightly batshit but I've clearly not yet reached 101 levels of crazy. The company has replied to say they "have ensured your comments will be addressed appropriately with our driver to help us prevent a similar occurrence". It might have helped that the free parking spaces are actually visible in the photo behind the van.

mrex the company will say that just to tick a box, they won't bother enforcing it.

@Laiste - you're correct as far as the dropped kerb, but the yellow lines make it a parking offence in our case.

Are these yellow lines just outside your drive?

@Aroundtheworldin80moves that's the thing, if her ds was in some way struggling then I'd be really considerate but he's in the navy and runs marathons so clearly perfectly able. It's more he doesn't want to park his precious merc far from the house. They did squeeze both cars onto the drive but I'm assuming that it was a pain as then you have to juggle cars if you need the other one on there first.

I'm hardly dying on a hill by sending a company a photo that shows a van parked across our drive with 4 metres of free unparked-on pavement space behind it.
@MRex please tell me you don't do this I get that they they shouldn't block your drive even though you have no car but they are delivering not parking.
Really I think you need to stop worrying

@Laiste - the lines go only across our drive and about 1ft either side, they are not on the parking spaces on either side of our drive nor opposite (not many houses have a drive on our road so it's mostly parking spaces).

I've only reported it once! If it wasn't for this thread I wouldn't think about it at all by now. I don't mind the parcel guys who take seconds but that food delivery guy is doing it regularly, at least a couple of times a week, and there is always space to park by the pavement. There have been other offenders, including one particular parcel guy and the one our family had to wait for, but it's really only when they're there for a while that we might even notice, I'm not staring out of windows.

I freely admit that I'm obsessed with parking.

It's just me and my son, all I want to be able to do is park my car outside my house. But it seems some of my neighbours are tossers and don't consider anyone but themselves.

One family has three cars and a large van. To be fair, they do park 2 on the driveway, but they abandon the other car and van outside mine and my neighbour's house with no care and consideration.

It makes me not want to go out just in case I can't park when I come home. At times it keeps me awake at night!

@BlackCatsRock but it's public property so your neighbour is in no way cheeky parking his vehicle there. When my dc are grown they are likely to have cars. They'll park them legally and sensibly but it'll mean that for a couple of years we could have 5 cars as I have 3dc. That's life.