Small town parking wars

[Carlosi456]

There is no parking on the street where I live but I regularly park on a side road where street parking is unregulated, about 50 meters from my house. If there is a space I'll park my little car. I'm a good reverse parallel parker as I've always had to park on the street, and my car is small.
One neighbour in particular is infuriated that I park in front of his house and is getting quite nasty, (muttering veiled insults, asking other parking cars loudly if they live in the street - we have had one polite conversation when we shared our opposing points of view and I suggested they campaigned for restricted parking in this street to resolve the issue).
AIBU - I should drive past a legal vacant parking space closest to my home because my neighbour feels entitled to it.
AINBU - it's first come first serve, if you drive past the space the next person will park in it anyway, just because you own a house doesn't mean you own the street.

YANBU. Does this neighbour need to park on the road too? It must be frustrating for them if they can't get parked outside their own house but, as you rightly say, they don't own the highway or the space outside their property, so they don't have first dibs on it.

YANBU you are parking in the closest legal space to your home. If he doesn’t like that it’s tough. He shouldn’t be intimidating you. We have an annoying neighbour who moans if we park outside his house. In fact the day we moved in he did it. No hello and welcome, just oh by the way that is our space.

As long as you're not on the pavement/blocking a dropped kerb/blocking the road/in a marked disabled bay then there's nothing wrong with you parking there.

The neighbour is stupid. Why buy a property in town with no parking if you can't live with a battle for parking spaces? It's all part of the parcel.

I would crack on.

Neighbour has 2 vehicles and also has to street park. I appreciate it's annoying, but wonder if there is some unspoken etiquette that I'm unaware of?

If you don't park there, somebody else will

I have a neighbour who can not stand it if we park legally outside his house. He has a drive big enough for 3 cars. He would rather park is car on the road just to stop us parking outside his house. He tries to intimidate me and spat at me after Christmas. I won’t be intimidated my some mindless bully though.

Whilst you're 100% okay to park there he sounds a little unhinged and I would be wary of him due to that and maybe not park there all the time.. Personal safety always comes first.

The neighbor is being unreasonable.
Sounds like where we live.
I much prefer to park outside/ near my house but accept I can't always. It's a first come/ first parked kind of thing.
(Doesn't stop me muttering about Fred from number 2 parking in my spot, but I'm peri menopausal . Even then I know I would be unreasonable to say something. )

Go for it! I live in a seaside town near the beach and it's free on street parking and trust me its everyone for themselves! You dont dare go out on a Saturday in summer as you'll never get a space again!

I've had to use a pay and display car park a few times as all the on street parking is gone! That's what happens when you dont have allocated parking.

At least your neoghbour doesnt have cones as many of mine try!

If they want reserved parking they need to pay for it. We have people in our (close to a train station) neighbourhood who constantly gripe about how many cars park there during the day, but also don’t want permit parking. You can’t have it both ways. If you get to store your property for free on a public road, then others can too.