To keep parking in front of this "drive"?

[Droppingthekerb]

Sorry it's a long one. I'll start off by saying that due to mobility issues I do drive my children to school which is about 1.5 miles from our house. I do not however qualify for a blue badge.

There are several residential streets near the school where people park to take kids to the school. I imagine it is annoying for the people who live there but there are no restrictions on the road in terms of yellow lines etc and generally I'd say people are respectful of the residents. There are a couple of cars who park overhanging the yellow zigzags and some on bends but for the most part people park at the side of the road and don't block driveways. Dropped kerbs are marked with white lines so it is clear where it is ok to park.

I tend to park on the street one up from the school as usually it is quieter and there's more chance of getting a space. Until recently there was a house on the street that had fallen into disrepair with an overgrown front garden. Over the last couple of months there have been tradespeople coming and doing up the house and now the front garden has been paved over. About 2 weeks ago I parked in front of this house and a man came running out of the house opposite shouting at me that I couldn't park there as I was blocking a drive. I had my kids with me and told him I did not appreciate being shouted at in front of them especially as there was no dropped kerb so it wasn't a driveway. There wasn't a car parked on it either. He stormed off back into his house.

A few days later I saw the space was available and as it was raining there were a lot of extra cars on the school run so spots were at a premium. I parked there again and returned to a note on my car not to block driveways.

I don't park there every time as there are other spaces available often before I get to that spot but last week I was running late for pick up and noticed the space was free again - I was feeling a bit petty too by this point. However, there was a police officer speaking to drivers about their parking to ensure it was safe as it was near a school. I parked there and the police officer stopped me and said she'd had a complaint about people blocking the drive. I pointed out there was no dropped kerb and she immediately said, "Oh, you're absolutely right. Carry on."

This morning it was again the only available space but today there was a car on the drive and seemingly new residents. I parked up as usual to find the man from the house opposite screaming at me again in front of my kids that I was blocking the drive and now the new resident of the house coming out to join in. I tried to keep my cool but it is quite intimidating having 2 men shouting at you in public especially with young children. I said I needed to get the kids to school but they were misinformed if they thought it was a drive as it didn't have a dropped kerb and actually he was in the wrong for driving his car over the pedestrian footpath. Neither of them were listening though as they just kept shouting over the top of me.

When I came back to my car he had taken a photo of it and then a photo of me and told me he was reporting me to the police. I again tried to explain about the lack of dropped kerb and he flat out told me that was not true, that he had the right to create a driveway whereever he wanted and that actually parking on the street full stop (driveway or no driveway) was against the law and he should know because he is a lawyer. I told him he was speaking rubbish and to look on the council website as it is very clear.

Up to now I've parked in other spots if they have been available but AIBU to keep parking in front of this "drive" just to make a point because they have pissed me off?

I’m shocked this is 50/50. People Really are awful sometimes.

no op you can’t block someone’s drive just because there is no dropped kerb. It’s shitty behaviour

Report the illegal crossover to the council. Take photos of the car on driveway as evidence. He will get a fine. I used to work in that department.

Meanwhile park somewhere else. Why put yourself at risk if he escalates or tried to key your car or something.

It’s not a driveway it’s an illegal crossover.

17)If a person knowingly uses a footway or verge as a crossing in contravention of any condition imposed under subsection (1)(b) above, or knowingly permits it to be so used, he is guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding [F5level 3 on the standard scale].

www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1980/66/section/184

The last post by the OP said

I appreciate all the perspectives and will try and be the bigger person and not expose my kids to unnecessary disputes

So I think common sense has won on this one.

Why would you park there and risk someone having a go at you in front of your kids. Technically you are doing nothing wrong in parking there but you parenting is seriously fucked up if you would take the forseeable risk of exposing your children to aggressive strangers when you dont need to. Leave earlier and park somewhere else.

God op how annoying are you! I hope he drops the precious curb to stop you parking there

Exactly, like dickheads who buy a place next to a pub and complain about the noise..

I pointed this out further upthread, but apart from the missing dropped kerb you can’t just pave over your front garden. Unless he’s used gravel or another permeable material he’d have needed planning permission. You can check if he has, and report him if not. This isn’t to be petty, but it’s a serious environmental issue.

YANBU

I'm reminded of a fabulous quote I saw on here once - it's not a driveway, it's a patio with aspirations!

I'd record them being aggressive and report to the police, there's only one party in the wrong here, and it's them.

Sorry OP, but blocking a car in is a dick move, especially at drop off time - what if they needed to go to work? Dropped kerb or no, that’s not fair.

We’ve a drive like this and paid alot for the dropped kerb to be done and people still park across it cos they can’t be arsed to walk to where they are going. Even if the car is there blocking it in.

People can be dicks

But yours isn’t “a drive like this”. Yours is a drive, his isn’t and he’s parking his car there illegally. And if he didn’t get planning permission to pave it over he could be made to rip it up again.

I meant to include this link in my comment a couple of posts back:

www.planningportal.co.uk/permission/common-projects/paving-your-front-garden/planning-permission

Didn’t know that, thanks for sharing.

No dropped curb means it’s not a driveway so you can park over it my mum had to pay the council £500 to have the curb dropped so that she could park on her driveway. He won’t get anywhere with the police about it because they know it’s not a driveway it’s just a paved over garden.

I didn’t either until we widened our then very narrow drive about 10 years ago - we were told we had to use gravel even though the rest of the driveway was paved (very old ”crazy paving”). It’s so that rain water can run through into the ground water rather than flow into drains and the sewage system.
We later applied for planning permission to lay stone paving as part of refurbing the house and got it but the rules are quite strict, and there has to be allowance for rain water to drain.

YABU

You're being petty, antagonistic, lazy (becuase it was raiiiiiininnnng) and a bit of a dick.

Stop blocking people's driveways

You need planning permission because it’s removing a parking space from the road - from a community perspective, Its technically the same thing as the homeowner taking a spot that used to be available for all and reserving it for his sole use.

There are safety considerations around visibility, the risk being massively increased to pavement users (especially around a primary school) when he drives across the pavement.

This is as well as the risk of damage to pipe work etc under the pavement when the homeowner drives over it.

If everyone just accepts DIY driveways, we will all be less safe and needing to pay more for repairs to our underground infrastructure.

You don’t need planning permission for most dropped kerbs only certain ones. We didn’t need planning for ours and we triple checked and when you do need planning it’s not because your taking a space away it’s because of the roads usage and structures on the road and areas around for visibility.

you just need a permit and to use a council approved guy to drop the kerb. They put in for a permit to work on the high way at around £250 council grants permit done. Nobody at all ever came to check or needed drawings or anything. Nobody asked what we were using on our land either be that gravel or paving. We did use gravel though.

So it completely varies by each council.

YABU I have a drive without dropped curb thankfully you can't really park in front of it without blocking the traffic and I had a drive in my previous house and didn't drop the curb

No planning permission for dropped kerb here either. Almost the whole street has them now, much to the chagrin of the school drop off twats that try to squeeze in every day.

It really does vary by council!

no planning permission needed for the average drive here - it’s only needed if the area is greater than 5 sq metres AND you are using non permeable materials with no soakaway. BUT only the council themselves can do the dropped kerb. There’s a long wait and for a drop that is just a single car width it is THOUSANDS! I paid for mine well over 20 years ago and it cost around £2k - having the kerb done was actually more expensive as having the drive done with block paving.

So you don't have a drive?