AIBU for wanting this lorry to park somewhere else?

[HappyButHangry]

We are hoping to move into our new home soon and I have noticed a lorry is always parked outside it. It belongs to someone who lives down the side road but that road is too narrow for the lorry to go down into.

Not only is it a real eyesore right in front of the house but because our house is sunken from street level it feels even more imposing and blocks out sunlight. We also have to park our own car somewhere else because it is always there.

AIBU for wanting it parked elsewhere? Are there any measures I can take so that he might park somewhere else?

It's always parked on the pavement actually rathe than the road come to think of it. The pavement is sort of double width and a lot of the cars on the road park on the pavement like that... I wonder if that's allowed in the first place..

How big is the lorry op? Can you post a stock photo of a similar one?

It's always parked on the pavement actually rathe than the road come to think of it. The pavement is sort of double width and a lot of the cars on the road park on the pavement like that... I wonder if that's allowed in the first place..

I think it's one of those things that tends to get a blind eye turned if it's not causing problems, but a lorry is liable to damage the pavement I'd have thought.

Kick up a fuss with the removals company, leave bad reviews, etc

Could you buy a really cheap car and tax it off road and just keep it outside your house so the lorry can't park there?

I've been thinking about it but would I also have to insure it?

It's the person's own company and it seems like it's a one man band

Is it a lorry, or is it a van?
Different rules for each.

A lorry ( A proper lorry, not Luton van) shouled be register to an operating centre, a base where generlly it should be stored

Not so a van- some of which can be pretty large, can be parked anywhere, wih the usual conditions Tax and insurance/road markings etc etc.

reputable removal company will have a base, your 'man with a van' removals
wont.

Do your research

Send photos to the local police. We did when neighbours continually blocked a pavement with their cars and the children had to walk in the road to school. A police community officer spoke to them and the situation improved.

Could you buy a really cheap car and tax it off road and just keep it outside your house so the lorry can't park there?
I've been thinking about it but would I also have to insure it?

If it would be parked on a public road it would need to be fully taxed: https://www.gov.uk/sorn-statutory-off-road-notification. You can't use a statutory off-road notification for a vehicle that is on a public road, regardless of whether it is being driven. To tax it, it would have to have valid insurance and MOT.

"Could you buy a really cheap car and tax it off road and just keep it outside your house so the lorry can't park there?"

First advice would have been to not buy the house. Second would be this.

Kick up a fuss with the removals company, leave bad reviews, etc

Book them to transport a small but 'very valuable' item to Penzance or Thurso (whichever is further from where you are), then buy some yellow paint and a brush and paint double yellows on the road, leaving only enough space between them for up to two cars to park next to each other

Definitely check with the council, in most places you cannot park commercial vehicular over a certain weight in residential areas

Vehicles FFS

It is just not true that lorries can "just park there", that's terrible advice. They can't park overnight on residential roads, check your council website. If this is really a lorry (aka an HGV - above 7.5 tonnes), the council will take action. But you could just send a polite email to the company to remind them of this, with a link to the council page.

If it's not a lorry but a big truck or van, then there is not much you can do as long as they are parked legally.

Ask the council to start regular sending traffic wardens to ticket all of the badly parked vehicles.

There are numerical petitions to ban pavement parking- sign one and send it to your council.

OP, I'm assuming you have off street parking or don't own a car?

You could approach them and if not successful you could contact the company and they may help to resolve the issue

I’d go for the dropped kerb application and reporting to the council too. Two stones and hopefully one will get the issue fixed.

Every time we have a 'patio with aspirations' thread, people always say that, in order to get a dropped kerb fitted to enable you to drive your Toyota Yaris briefly across the pavement on to your property, the council have to strengthen the pavement, as normal pavement simply isn't strong enough for a car to safely drive over it; but then it seems that a huge removal lorry can just park over the (regular) pavement almost permanently and it's absolutely fine?!

Because they don’t reinforce it at. I watched them do ours. They didn’t actually touch the footpath section in our case just the grass verges each side. Dug out, small amount of hardcore, smashed in down, tarmac and smash it down. Done well and changed the actual kerb stones. But no more reinforced that the actual footpath anyway.

You could approach them and if not successful you could contact the company and they may help to resolve the issue

It sounds like it's a one-man-band. If it were a company of any size, they would sometimes need to store customers' goods overnight in their lorries (very early starts for longer journeys, delays with getting keys, sales falling through last-minute etc.) - and their insurance would dictate that the lorries would need to be stored in a secure locked compound whilst full, not just in any old residential street.

This man knows full-well that he's behaving outrageously - and quite probably illegally - and he obviously doesn't care. It isn't just a misunderstanding - he's set himself up with an actual business and bought a huge lorry, knowing that he has nowhere appropriate to park it when not in use; he isn't going to just go quietly and agree to wind up his business when OP makes him 'realise' that where he parks his lorry is absolutely not acceptable and cannot continue.

Even if he had a massive long drive at his home where he could park it on his own property, it still would be very likely illegal to permanently park a massive commercial vehicle in a residential area. Even if the council do move him on, he'll probably just find another residential street to leave it in - and claim that he was 'just making a delivery' there when the council happened to spot him.

Because they don’t reinforce it at. I watched them do ours. They didn’t actually touch the footpath section in our case just the grass verges each side. Dug out, small amount of hardcore, smashed in down, tarmac and smash it down. Done well and changed the actual kerb stones. But no more reinforced that the actual footpath anyway.

No, that's my experience as well - I think it beggars belief that they'd do anything of the sort under the surface to the utility pipes etc. If they did genuinely do that, I think they'd have to charge far more than what they already get away with charging if they needed to get somebody from all the gas, electricity, water and broadband companies out to survey/strengthen/sign it off.

I just find it baffling when people on threads insist that any vehicles parked on/driving over a section of pavement where there is no dropped kerb will do untold damage. Yes, it's often illegal and highly annoying; but dangerous to the structural integrity of the whole pavement?

As PP have said, contact the council and check whether restraints on commercial lorry parking apply in your road.

Contact the Highways department at your council. Pavements aren’t designed for lorries to be parked on them and it will be damaging the pavement.

Speak to the owner first! We had a similar issue with a van parking in front of ours every single day and spoke to the driver. He still parks on the road but basically in a different space each time. So we maybe have his van in front of our living room once every couple of weeks.