New house - new neighbours - new parking woes

[PeeAche]

Moved into the house of our dreams this summer - but didn't realise parking would be such an issue.

We have a "driveway" that is wide enough to accommodate 3 cars. It is L shaped so 2 cars would be parked in a line and 1 car off to the side IYSWIM.

We don't have 3 cars though, we have 2. And we thought it would be perfect. But after we moved in, we realised that space 3 (the one off to the side) is impossible to get into, due to the narrow entry way into the drive.

Because spaces 1 & 2 are back to back, we only really get use out of 1 space.

The people that lived here before us were very elderly and housebound.

So the solution is to whip out the gate post and make it all wider at the front. Ideally we would also increase the dropped curb.

Parking on the road should be no issue. It's a tiny village with no shops, no school and no attractions. Just a line of houses and every single house has a drive - apart from the house opposite. The house opposite have 3 enormous cars and nowhere to put them. The road is narrow.

Their preference is to park them right outside our house - which would be no problem, except they hem us in on all sides. They park so that each end of their cars are overhanging our dropped curb by just a few mm. The third car, they park directly opposite our drive. It's not technically an illegal parking formation but it does mean that it's a 6-point-turn getting onto or off our own driveway. Every day. It's driving me batty!!!

I have tried having a friendly word and they just said "we've lived here for 22 years" and nothing else. No apology, explanation or owt. Just that. And then they walked away.

I realise this is a very small thing to be complaining about. But I am at my wits end after missing my own midwife appointment last week because they had totally blocked me in!

The other thing is (although the speed limit is 30), people average around 50mph on our road and I can't see round the tunnel of car they have created. It's like the riskiest creep-n-peep ever. And it's an almost daily occurrence that some vehicle is bombing it along and has to do an emergency stop because I'm sat in the middle of the road, trapped between 3 cars, doing my dodgy 6-point-turn 😅

If I call the council and show them how dangerous it all is, how likely is it that they will let me increase my dropped curb by another foot or so? Or apply some double yellows? Or am I in fantasy land? And would this be the biggest Dick Move ever to my neighbours - who would then have to shuffle along the street to the next spots?

We do try to nab at least 1 of the spots with 1 of our cars, if we can - and leave a good foot of space so that the driveway isn't all hemmed in. But we work full time and the cars are in constant use. Whereas our neighbours seem happy to leave theirs there for days on end. We can't both be parking on the street all the time as we have young kids to load in (and I'm preggers). Plus my car is electric so I need to be able to charge it.

Our house is quite wide so there are a total of road 3 spaces along our frontage. They could shuffle down a bit and not use the one that hems in our drive!

Oh, for the record, I drive a Golf so it's neither a big nor small car. DH drives something similar but not electric. I'm not trying to manoeuvre some angry tank!

So, the Q is:

AIBU to contact the council and try to get the curb lowered / permanently change the parking situation?

YANBU: This sounds fine and safe and your neighbours will get over it.
YABU: They've done this for 20 years and now you think you should shake it all up? It's just parking. Get a life. Etc.

Opinions from both sides welcome! I can submit diagrams if this helps... I have the day off.

No diagram yet….try again.

@DobbyTheHouseElk I can see it

You are breaking the rules, Where is the diagram?

I can see it, good diagram OP. Absolutely agree, extend the dropped kerb, double yellow if possible, white line if not. I have a white line, some people ignore it because they are entitled gits but most are absolutely fine. Of course this may not stop your neighbours who have clearly built up rights to block anyone they feel like in over the last 22 years but it's definitely worth a try. Good luck

[quote Hboo31]@DobbyTheHouseElk I can see it [/quote]
How odd. I can’t.

Reposting the diagram (hopefully)

I can't see the diagram - maybe you can only see it if using app?

You need to get either H painted on, widen dropped curb, or get double yellows.

If all these fail, you can do what my old colleague did in a similar situation. He got two very cheap cars (less than £1k each)and parked them a nice distance each side of the drive. He said it made it safe to use his drive, and the look on his neighbours face made it worth every penny.

I can see it. Thank you.

Definitely widen the dropped kerb and get a H painted on the road. The NDN are CFers.

Why are they parking there? Why can’t they park along from them on their side?

I can see the diagram now OP yes that doesn't look safe.

I don't see why you can't use both your spaces 1 & 2? Or are you unable to drive each other's cars?

@DonGray we can (and often do) use spaces 1 and 2 but clearly it is inconvenient. It also doesn't mean my neighbours are going to magically stop blocking me in. 😂 Come on.

You need to persuade the council to get a dropped kerb extension, or better still double yellow lines.

If they're overhanging your dropped kerb by "a few mm" - by which I would assume you mean less than a centimetre - it's debatable whether they are breaking the rules. Usually these things are measured from where the tyres are, and there will always be an overhang because of the bumper.

There have been cases in the past where similar circumstances have occurred, and basically because each car, individually, is not doing anything wrong, there was nothing the driver owner could do. Albeit in other cases the other cars were not all owned by the same people.

If you can't get any joy from the council the best option would be to buy a cheap banger and just park that outside your house yourself, you'd have to keep it insured/MOT'd etc of course but in the long run would be cheaper and less painful than if someone crashes into you as you're doing a 6 point turn.

Could you get one of those curvy mirrors you see on country roads put by the post box, so you can see if the road's clear when you're pulling out?

Inconsiderate of them to park right up to the dropped curb. Is there room for them to move back or they just don’t ? You’ve told them it’s causing problems and they continue to do it , next stop is the council. I wouldn’t bother saying anything else to them , it doesn’t seem worth it. Even if they didn’t park one side it would help but I can see why it’s so tricky. I’d take some pics at different times of day to demonstrate what’s happening.

Great diagram extra bonus points for postbox and the copy of Private Eye it's on top of.

I can see the diagram now. Well done OP!

Ok so in the meantime until you get the dropped kerb extended you could park across your own drive. Or you could park in the space on the road in front of your house behind their cars.

Interesting. If there’s a dropped kerb I assume there’s a pavement between your front boundary (a wall?) and the road?

Around me, people pave over their front gardens and use their neighbours dropped kerb to access it from an angle, to save money. So I wonder whether you could access space 3 if you simply widened your driveway opening, rather than the dropped kerb too? You’d gain the pavement depth as increased turning space.

Thanks for all the great advice. I love Mumsnet sometimes. 😀 @MyAnacondaMight I agree that just ditching the gatepost would work in most instances. Not entirely sure if my neighbours would react to that by moving along?

What is the H thing? Is it like a very squat H?

Speak to the council and get the dropped curb made wider. Really go for the safety angle.

I'd ask to widen the dropped kerb all the way up to your path. That way you could use all your parking spaces. You could pull out more safely too.

Yes I would be inclined to extend your dropped kerb the WHOLE width of space 3 to make your access easy and make it extremely clear that the neighbours can no longer park there. It would be worth the money IMO.

Diagram very clear. Thank you.

www.solihull.gov.uk/Parking/H-markings

here you go op

Could a fire engine get through the road with the neighbour’s cars parked as they are? If not you may be able to get double yellow lines down one side to ensure access and that might be a very good idea from a safety perspective.

Getting your drive and dropped curb widened would be sensible but probably expensive. You aren’t being at all inconsiderate when you’ve asked them and they’ve basically said FU.

If that doesn’t work out for some reason you could consider getting a dirt cheap moped and parking it permanently on the road by your drive so neighbours can’t block you in so badly. Would require keeping it taxed and insured, though. So not a cheap option long term.

Just came here for the diagram and wasn’t disappointed. Thanks OP.

No advice though, I don’t even drive