AIBU to block in school mums parking on my driveway?

[Applepiesmum]

i live down the road from a school and during the school rush parents park everywhere it normally worse in the afternoon at 3pm

I work from home and usually park in the visitor pay outside my house so my partner can park on the driveway he gets home 3.30-4pm

however recently people have been parking on my driveway last week I caught someone pulling in knocked on their window and they argued with me saying they need to pick up their child eventually they did move but moved to where they were just half way blocking my drive way and halfway blocking my neighbor so no one could access it!

I didn’t bother confront them again but in future I’m just thinking to block them in… is that too petty

I have reported it to the school but all they’ve said is they’ve already asked parents not to block residents in so I’m not sure what else to do.

(if I did block anyone in it would only be for 30 minutes to cause a bit of stress and a lesson learned)

Am I being stupid? How does school parent get around your car to access your driveway? It reads to me that you’re saving your personal parking and extra at bottom of driveway in the road

Indeed.

The twisting and turning to blame the OP for the idiot entitled parent who thought it was OK to park on someone's drive ...

Could you just park in your drive though and your partner parks across blocking you in when they arrive back? Then everyone’s happy?

Yes this. I thought this was what you are doing. Or why not park on your drive and move when husband comes home.

Yes, I'd do this.

You are nicer than me. I would buy some tack strips and just go out and move them before your partner comes home.

Let them park then sprinkle bird seed around the car ... poo city ! 🤣

I live almost next door to a school and we get plenty of ridiculous parking on our road but not aware of anyone actually going into anyone’s drive.
what CFers
Yanbu

The twisting and turning to blame the OP for the idiot entitled parent who thought it was OK to park on someone's drive ...

Nobody is doing this.

Nobody thinks it's ok.

The solution is and always has been for OP to use her own drive though.

I beleive its illegal to block someone's use of the highway but not someone's use of their drive. So OP could be committing am offence. Also starting WW3 remember these selfish people know where you live. You don't know where they live.
I would take photos and keep a diary and seek further advice from council re parking wardens. Who will prob say its a private matter.

Not much you can do really. Selfish as it is.

Take the car's registration and give it to the school office to report the parent/carer for parking on your property.

Oh dear, what a shame - they should have thought about that before using someone else’s property! Tough

Go out there with a large steak knife and slash their tyres? Might mean they’re stick on your drive a bit whilst they sort out the tyres, but a little inconvenience will be worth it long term….. they won’t park there again.

stuck

I think the suggestion of parking in your own driveway before they arrive is the easiest. Do you and your husband have a car each? If you do can he not park behind you and when he leaves in the morning, you move your car down into his vacated space?
I could have the wrong end of the stick.

unless the visitor space is owned by a householder then it is the same as any other unmarked parking space on an adopted road and anyone can park there.

Go for it!

Unfortunately the law is against you here
if they park on your driveway you can take them to court for trespass but that’s literally it! (Crap I know!!)
However if you block them in this becomes a police matter… the law states you can’t block another cars access to a road.
I know this is crap and once again penalises home owners, but be careful blocking people in

I did this at my old flat. It was allocated residents parking, clearly signposted. I arrived home from work and someone visiting was in my space. So I blocked them in.

Then I took ages to get to the door and move my car so she could leave. She seemed quite traumatised by the experience. No one ever used my space again 😂

Including the OP if she wants to keep the drive clear for her husband.

The person trespassing on private property would be at fault.

While I don't think people should be parking in the driveway, I bet your neighbours aren't very happy that you park in a spot that's designed for visitors.

You presumably have one park like everyone else ( your driveway) allocated for your house.

Where should visitors park if you're using the visitors park?

Then you need to read the Highway Code AND also understand that nobody owns the footpath plus road space right outside their homes. 🤷‍♂️

You only own a driveway space actually ON your property.

It's really simple. Those dropped kerbs enable those reliant on wheelchairs and scooters to safely get on/off when crossing roads too. Another reason no-one can park across driveways.

The peelers wouldn't be interested in a parking dispute.

But they'll be interested in people obstructing others from accessing the public highway. Even if the driveway isn't theirs. Doing so could end up being more bother than it's worth for the property owner.

Sometimes, when we lived five minutes walk from our children's school, I'd pop down before making breakfast, and put some cones that I'd placed nearby, out on the zig zags, three either side of the entrance. Drivers couldn't drive over them (they were the two foot tall ones), and they couldn't be bothered to get out and move them, so it worked pretty well.

Now, was I being unreasonable, doing this? Would some call me a 'headbanger'? Almost certainly so, but the school should have been doing it. Some schools are doing it now, so I was ahead of the curve, fifteen years or so ago. If the head teacher in question hadn't been such a petty man, I wouldn't have had to do it all myself, and the school would have looked more progressive.