Parking issues what to do?

[Parkingconcerns]

I live in a city where parking is on street resident permit holder. Issue is I live near a church and every time they have an event a few of the attendees parking either in the resident parking bays which means me and others on the street cannot or they then park on double yellow lines, end of junctions and even over the dropped curb pedestrian crossing bits.

I've spoken to the church before and the council and nothing changes (I'm sure they remind people but some events such as those for kids are not always attended by those who go for church service). I've emailed the manager again as its really stressful and sometimes they've parked right across or wait in junctions meaning I can't even leave my street.

Any tips?

I think in this situation, having done what you can by speaking to the church and the council, without success, I'd be tempted to contact the traffic police and ask them if they can do anything about it, as it could be really dangerous if an ambulance or fire engine can't get through.

Honestly been there and they will just say ‘contact the council’. The police and council pass the buck to each other’. You can’t win but you can take revenge. I’m bot talking criminal damage but blocking them in.

Put notices on their cars? Apart from the danger issue, can you not just park further away on those days?

Get a bicycle?

Is there a Facebook group for the church? Take photos of the cars and post to the facebook page - will embarrass them if nothing else!

That’s not useful. The OP should be able to get in and out of her street. The parishioners should not be parked illegally. It is that that needs tackling not the OP finding a different method of travel.

You picked up on that one and not the one about destroying the church?! I would assume that the bike suggestion was a humorous one same as the other, not that it was a serious suggestion!

Apologies. Sadly there seem to be some real car haters out there so I wrongly assumed it was serious. Some assume that car drivers are too lazy for the ‘obvious’ alternatives.
Damaging the church I simply dismissed as a joke.

Block them in

Go into the church when they block the roads and ask them to move their vehicles everything

If the road is blocked or they are parked dangerously call 101. Otherwise all you can do is take photos of all the offending vehicles number plates and send to the council over and over again. I have this issue but in reverse,it's shopper's blocking the church entrance, vicarage parking etc, cant even get to the garage due to them - I have the community support duty phone who do ticket but they won't tow if they have disabled badges (which they usually do)

I feel your pain OP! We live near a church which has a MASSIVE carpark at the side of it but for some reason the majority of people park and block the roads even though the gates to the carpark are open well before the first church-goer even arrives. Had some CF attempt to park over my driveway and their excuse was they were only going to see the christening... Picture of carpark for reference 🙈

Chocolate spread under the door handles and a note on the windscreen for a start?
Or, as a PP said, go into the church and ask them to remove their cars.

Call into the local police station or call the local police number and request they send an officer out during a service time. The police only have to ticket once or twice to get the message out to the community using the church that they are risking an actual ticket. (Rather than the idea the police ignore the areas because it is a church)

I’d go into the church and in a loud voice; “sorry to intrude but can the pink fiat 500 registration number Iparklikeadick please come and move their car as you have blocked me in and I’d like to be able to leave my home.”

I would then do this EACH AND EVERYTIME.

After a few Sundays of you doing this and someone having to embarrassingly move, if they still weren’t getting it, then I think I would also say-“you know what, if you all parked sensibly and stopped blocking us in and making our road unsafe with your dangerous parking, then I wouldn’t have to keep coming and disturbing services. In future times, as well as disturbing services, I will be reporting illegal parking to the police”

maybe the vicar might start being a bit proactive then? And report to the bishop as well?

That sounds so annoying. I agree with interuppting the service each and every time.

Contact the traffic warden section of the council.

Can you raise it with your local MP?

If that’s the car park, maybe people are assuming it’s not in use because the metal gates are closed?

Apologies, have just read your post again and you say it’s been opened. No excuse there then!

Haha no worries! I just took a quick screen grab for reference. Honestly, it's ridiculous, maybe they just don't like driving off the carpark?! 🙈

I've been in church services/events where there has been an announcement requesting the owner of car reg AB12 CDE to go and move it. If you pop along with the registration numbers on a bit of paper, there's usually someone on door duty who you could pass that to. A couple of times should be enough to deter most people.

Alternatively, if you have parking enforcement officers in your area, pass them a copy of the church calendar. I think they often have targets to meet, and glad to know of where they might be likely to catch a few people at a time. I used to take DD to something where many parents parked in pay & display bays without paying while they took the kids in or went in to collect them. Often, from the second day onwards, the parking enforcement officers would be ready and waiting.

It sounds annoying but apart from leaving a message on the windscreen saying please don't park here again you are blocking me in, I don't know what you can do. I was in Ireland having a few days holiday a few years ago and on a Sunday morning we were driving along a road and as we went around bend just cars parked all over the road outside a little church. Literally about 20 cars. We just went into the service as it was that or just sat in our car waiting for the service to end. We were stunned that a small church was so well attended.

I work with a similar situation to what you describe.

When I get complaints (and it isn't only church people, we hire rooms out), I tell the residents to complain to the council as well as me, and I phone the parking services and ask the council to come down and give fines. It is totally unfair on the residents who pay a lot for their parking permits.

I send out reminders and warnings to groups that do this, and always tell new groups not to park there. I make it very clear that they will be risking a fine if they park there.
If someone gets a fine through parking in a resident's spot, then they pay the fine.
And if you came in when I was there I would perfectly happily go into a group and tell people to move their car. I've done it before now, and no doubt will do it again.

At one point it was really bad in the evenings, and I was discussing with the council about them doing evening checks, but we managed to bring it down, and now it's rarely an issue.

You really do need to get the council to come and fine the double yellows and bad parking though, as it is the only way some people learn. I know someone who got four fines before they eventually started parking in a proper place. Every now and then they try it again, get another fine and stop again. If they'd parked in the large multi-storey five minute walk every time they'd have paid a fraction of what they'd paid in fines.

The problem also is if no one is checking them people tell each other "oh, yes, you can park there, I always do." After covid we had a number of people who'd got very slack on where they parked, and they told their friends, who weren't even using us. So the council had to get heavy on them. I think my favourite appeal from that was from one person who appealed the fine because "we always park there and didn't know it was residents only." They included a photo of their car to show, what, I'm not sure. However me and the council had a bit of a chuckle because they'd parked next to the "resident permits only" sign. I suggested the council should fine them double as they'd admitted they'd done it before. Unfortunately (as far as I was concerned-they weren't even using our building) they said they couldn't.

Get the local police/traffic wardens involved.