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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to block in school mums parking on my driveway?

895 replies

Applepiesmum · 23/03/2023 10:49

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)

OP posts:
Thread gallery
6
Autienotnautie · 25/03/2023 22:44

I'd park on the drive and your dh park in front of the drive

SinnerBoy · 26/03/2023 02:31

I'd park across the drive and block her in, then wait for the knock on the door. I'd feign ignorance and pretend it wasn't my car, then say,

"Hang on! You're parked on my drive?! The nerve of you! Don't do it again and tell your mate not to park across my drive when they come back!"

Then close the door.

RosaBonheur · 26/03/2023 08:02

Pixie18 · 25/03/2023 19:32

But why does the resident need to use the visitor bay when they have TWO other spaces to choose from ? Obviously a complete random parking on someone’s driveway is totally unacceptable no matter what. there are also no rules to say that a resident cant use a visitor bay but a bit of common decency would make me feel very selfish ( towards neighbours not school mums) if i was doing this . This is obv and regular thing with the OP and if i was a neighbour living down a busy road , not lucky enough to have a driveway and could never find a parking space down my own road . Well, id be pretty pissed off . Sounds like absolute laziness to me

Show quote history

Where are you getting two other spaces from? There's absolutely nothing in the OP's posts to suggest that this is the case. They have a driveway and a visitor's bay.

Pixie18 · 26/03/2023 09:02

RosaBonheur · 26/03/2023 08:02

Where are you getting two other spaces from? There's absolutely nothing in the OP's posts to suggest that this is the case. They have a driveway and a visitor's bay.

Show quote history

Their driveway and the space directly outside their house on the street

RosaBonheur · 26/03/2023 09:11

Pixie18 · 26/03/2023 09:02

Their driveway and the space directly outside their house on the street

Show quote history

The space directly outside their house on the street is the visitor's bay.

Boysnana · 26/03/2023 09:13

If you did that to me and it was an emergency or my child was sick I would pull you through your own letterbox and take your keys and move your car myself.

However, I wouldn't park in someone's driveway. If it were a one off emergency I would knock the door and explain.

Maybe some parents who pick up have hidden disabilities and can't walk far or have other children at other schools to pick up at the same time.

We could go on and on...

Basically yes its rude and bad behaviour to park on your drive. But the carry on like you are swizzles my mind. All this do this do that. Seriously .. you might win the battle but maybe not the war. Not everyone would be shamed by being blocked in and you might get more than you bargained for.

Pixie18 · 26/03/2023 09:14

RosaBonheur · 26/03/2023 09:11

The space directly outside their house on the street is the visitor's bay.

Show quote history

That doesnt make sense and surely cannot be allowed . What would be the point of having a driveway if a visitors bay can be put there . You would be blocked in 24/7

BlueHeelers · 26/03/2023 09:18

That doesnt make sense and surely cannot be allowed .

Its extraordinary how posters are adamant that the situation @Applepiesmum describes as her actual real life situation cannot be true! It’s underhanded troll hunting.

And also a deflection from the trespass that school parents are regularly committing by parking on her drive because they are lazy entitled arses.

loislovesstewie · 26/03/2023 09:20

So, to get back to reality. Are people really saying it's OK to park on another person's drive?

Pixie18 · 26/03/2023 09:27

BlueHeelers · 26/03/2023 09:18

That doesnt make sense and surely cannot be allowed .

Its extraordinary how posters are adamant that the situation @Applepiesmum describes as her actual real life situation cannot be true! It’s underhanded troll hunting.

And also a deflection from the trespass that school parents are regularly committing by parking on her drive because they are lazy entitled arses.

i dont think you’ve read my original post. absolutely not ‘troll hunting’ my first post was clearly trying to understand the situation and another poster confirmed i had understood correctly. Also said it’s totally unacceptable for a random to park on your driveway . I stand corrected if i have it wrong

DownNative · 26/03/2023 09:28

JoePinapples · 24/03/2023 21:55

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.

Did you have explicit permission from your local council to put cones out?

If not, you could be in legal bother for doing this since you do NOT own the pavement or road space outside your property.

Schools, on the other hand, will have been authorised by the council to put cones out.

In this case, yes you WERE being unreasonable.....

DownNative · 26/03/2023 09:31

loislovesstewie · 26/03/2023 09:20

So, to get back to reality. Are people really saying it's OK to park on another person's drive?

No, they're saying it's unreasonable and a legal issue to block someone IN your own driveway.

Falls under obstruction of access to public highway in the Highway Code. The peelers would be more interested in that than someone parking on your driveway. One is a civil matter and the other is a police matter.

That's reality.

LadyHaHaHeeHaw · 26/03/2023 09:47

DownNative · 26/03/2023 09:31

No, they're saying it's unreasonable and a legal issue to block someone IN your own driveway.

Falls under obstruction of access to public highway in the Highway Code. The peelers would be more interested in that than someone parking on your driveway. One is a civil matter and the other is a police matter.

That's reality.

Show quote history

No , most people are saying it's reasonable and they would accept the consequences
What fucker is going to call the police and say "I've trespassed and parked on a private drive and now I've been blocked in can you come and help me?'
It's not an emergency
Seriously though, what did they think would happen? The house owner to just roll with it?
Give over

BlueHeelers · 26/03/2023 10:08

loislovesstewie · 26/03/2023 09:20

So, to get back to reality. Are people really saying it's OK to park on another person's drive?

A lot of posters are implying that, by throwing all sorts of whataboutery at the OP.

Such as
“why don’t you park on your drive?”
You shouldn’t park in the visitor’s bay
You shouldn’t have a visitor’s bay
A visitor’s bay can’t or shouldn’t even exist

Plumbear2 · 26/03/2023 10:14

Boysnana · 26/03/2023 09:13

If you did that to me and it was an emergency or my child was sick I would pull you through your own letterbox and take your keys and move your car myself.

However, I wouldn't park in someone's driveway. If it were a one off emergency I would knock the door and explain.

Maybe some parents who pick up have hidden disabilities and can't walk far or have other children at other schools to pick up at the same time.

We could go on and on...

Basically yes its rude and bad behaviour to park on your drive. But the carry on like you are swizzles my mind. All this do this do that. Seriously .. you might win the battle but maybe not the war. Not everyone would be shamed by being blocked in and you might get more than you bargained for.

How nice 🙄 you are forgetting that the householder may have a disability, hidden or not. Having a disability does not give school parents the right to park on someone's drive.

premicrois · 26/03/2023 10:14

@BlueHeelers

I have said more than once OP should park in her drive. I don't see any point in parking over it, when she can just park on it. That doesn't mean by some weird 'whataboutery' that I think Penske are fine to park on OP drive. It means as per the thread I think OP IBU to consider parking over her drive. She can just park on it. The visitor bay is a red herring because whether she is over the drive or on the drive she isn't going to be in that bay anyway.

Plumbear2 · 26/03/2023 10:18

Plumbear2 · 26/03/2023 10:14

How nice 🙄 you are forgetting that the householder may have a disability, hidden or not. Having a disability does not give school parents the right to park on someone's drive.

Show quote history

Oh and if you attempted to pull me out of my letterbox and take my keys after blocking my own drive way due to an inconsiderate person using my driveway I would have you up for assault.

rwalker · 26/03/2023 11:32

Pixie18 · 25/03/2023 19:31

But why does the resident need to use the visitor bay when they have TWO other spaces to choose from ? Obviously a complete random parking on someone’s driveway is totally unacceptable no matter what. there are also no rules to say that a resident cant use a visitor bay but a bit of common decency would make me feel very selfish ( towards neighbours not school mums) if i was doing this . This is obv and regular thing with the OP and if i was a neighbour living down a busy road , not lucky enough to have a driveway and could never find a parking space down my own road . Well, id be pretty pissed off . Sounds like absolute laziness to me .

If it was a fellow resident compiling then fair enough
so what your saying is she should park on her driveway or park over her drive opening to leave visitor parking free for randoms who are not residents or visitors of residents

DrMarciaFieldstone · 26/03/2023 11:35

Maybe some parents who pick up have hidden disabilities and can't walk far or have other children at other schools to pick up at the same time.

Not relevant to parking on someone’s drive. They can speak to the school about accessible parking, they can’t take the matter in their own hands and park on a nearby driveway.

Jonei · 26/03/2023 11:39

Maybe some parents who pick up have hidden disabilities and can't walk far or have other children at other schools to pick up at the same time.

Historically people always used the blue badge scheme for this purpose rather than resorting to parking on strangers driveways / in their parking bays.

LadyHaHaHeeHaw · 26/03/2023 11:41

rwalker · 26/03/2023 11:32

If it was a fellow resident compiling then fair enough
so what your saying is she should park on her driveway or park over her drive opening to leave visitor parking free for randoms who are not residents or visitors of residents

Show quote history

Oh stop talking sense @rwalker Grin
No-one wants to hear your sensible response when it's easier to make things up

Pixie18 · 26/03/2023 11:56

rwalker · 26/03/2023 11:32

If it was a fellow resident compiling then fair enough
so what your saying is she should park on her driveway or park over her drive opening to leave visitor parking free for randoms who are not residents or visitors of residents

Show quote history

Yes leave the ‘visitor’ bay free for ‘visitors’ or residents who are not fortunate enough to have a driveway. We dealt with this a lot where my family home is . people with driveways and 2 or 3 cars and they chose to park them outside someone elses house cos they simply couldn’t be bothered to swap them around. Meanwhile my poor dad who is nearly 70 is parking 2 roads away just to get home after working all day . Perhaps its me but it just doesnt seem to be the neighbourly thing to do. But I will also say it again in case it has been missed - randoms cannot park on peoples driveways. Obviously not acceptable. Agree to disagree i guess. Have a lovely day

loislovesstewie · 26/03/2023 12:05

Sorry but I am going to say this again. I thought the visitors spaces were allocated to individual properties, if that is the case then surely the resident can use their space as they wish +

rwalker · 26/03/2023 12:10

Pixie18 · 26/03/2023 11:56

Yes leave the ‘visitor’ bay free for ‘visitors’ or residents who are not fortunate enough to have a driveway. We dealt with this a lot where my family home is . people with driveways and 2 or 3 cars and they chose to park them outside someone elses house cos they simply couldn’t be bothered to swap them around. Meanwhile my poor dad who is nearly 70 is parking 2 roads away just to get home after working all day . Perhaps its me but it just doesnt seem to be the neighbourly thing to do. But I will also say it again in case it has been missed - randoms cannot park on peoples driveways. Obviously not acceptable. Agree to disagree i guess. Have a lovely day

Show quote history

Your to busy being outraged and telling us about your personal situation to read what I put
if the issue was a fellow resident complaining about OP leaving drive free and using visitor parking and they had nowhere to park or there visitors couldn’t park then my response would be different and I would agree 109% with you

but this is about people who nether live or are visiting residents parking there hence my response

Pixie18 · 26/03/2023 12:16

rwalker · 26/03/2023 12:10

Your to busy being outraged and telling us about your personal situation to read what I put
if the issue was a fellow resident complaining about OP leaving drive free and using visitor parking and they had nowhere to park or there visitors couldn’t park then my response would be different and I would agree 109% with you

but this is about people who nether live or are visiting residents parking there hence my response

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Yes i was waiting for that comment to be honest and fair enough - i am going slightly off topic lol. Im not outraged i just cant help but think that OP can only be bothered to move car around to teach someone a lesson . If OP was doing the right and obvious thing in the first place this thread wouldn’t exist.