To think that you can’t just close a road like this!

[RoadClosed]

Came home from work a few weeks ago (2:30pm) and our road had “road closed” signs on it. Highly unusual as it’s a quiet one way street with a couple of cul-de-sacs leading off it. I parked up and walked the rest of the way home (only 2 minutes, it’s not a long road). When DH came home he said the road wasn’t closed - no signs of it ever being closed.

A few days later same thing, 2:30pm - road closed. No signs of work going on, so I moved the sign and drove to my house. A neighbour text me same day asking why the road is closed as there is no work going on. I said I had no idea so he rang council to ask - they had no idea either and said nobody had applied to close the road either. Therefore we all just moved these signs off the road whenever we saw them and drove past.

Long story short - a woman down the street then went knocking on doors asking people not to move the signs as they were put there during the day to make the street safe for kids to play on!! By kids she means her son. It was explained to her that she can’t just close the road for this reason! Her reasoning is that it’s a short street and it’s only a short walk from the signs to any of the houses on the street. She was told that this isn’t the point, people have a right to be able to drive to their driveways! She’s continuing to put the signs up between 10am and 3pm. AWBU to continue ignoring them??

I knew a gentleman in his 70s, had very limited mobility due to disability, only had 1 eye but managed to drive perfectly safely until he passed away. He even drove with a broken ankle as he had an automatic car. Driving is a lot easier than walking for someone with mobility issues because you are sitting down and not weight baring. Walking can be painful but driving not painful.

If your house has a legal driveway (dropped kerb etc) then you'd still have "access" even if the road was closed officially, i.e. with council approval. They're always "access only" unless it's actually dangerous, i.e. due to the road being dug up, in which case there'd be barriers/lights around the hole!

In our village, the main road is closed on bonfire night for the village firework display, all legalities complied with including council letters on lamp posts etc and a proper "traffic management" firm doing the cones and road closed signs. I still have the right to drive to get in and out of my drive - the traffic management guys happily (or grumpily) move the cones and signs upon being asked to do so, they just ask you to drive slowly due to all the people coming and going.

I have considered it a possibility and wondered whether it's worth being assessed

I agree with CountessWindyBottom.

& if the idea is that she doesn’t want to be outside with her 3 year old, so he’s not being supervised, then what’s to stop him getting carried away & scooting off & away down the road with no one around to keep an eye?!
Not beyond the realms of possibility if he’s left to his own devices out there from 10am to 3pm

Reposition the signs to trap her in her own driveway and tell her to stop moving them when she does.

In reality report her to the council.

I said 'for access' - I didn't know how to phrase it, as cars do often park on pavements when necessary (obviously, they should certainly only do so on wide pavements, so that they do not prevent pedestrians and those with wheelchairs, mobility scooters and pushchairs from using them); but they are clearly not travelling at 20 or 30mph along a pavement and thus liable to knock people over.

Even just accessing a drive almost always involves driving over a pavement, but it is still not using it as an ersatz road and travelling at road speeds.

I agree that there are a lot of selfish drivers, but that is a driver problem; not a car problem.

Many European countries have a much more child centred attitude than we do here.

In the highly unlikely event that any country as a whole - and not just this woman and a minority of similarly-unwise parents - has an attitude where they freely allow pre-school-age children to roam free outside, unsupervised by an adult, I really can't say that I would covet that attitude for here.

cars do often park on pavements when necessary (obviously, they should certainly only do so on wide pavements, so that they do not prevent pedestrians and those with wheelchairs, mobility scooters and pushchairs from using them);

They shouldn't be parking on pavements at all. It wrecks pavements and causes damage which risks the safety and ease of pedestrians and costs a lot of money to fix. Pavements are not built with vehicle weights in mind.

If you can't park without blocking the road, you need to go and find somewhere else to park and walk to your destination from there, unless there is some sort of literal emergency going on.

I've said this before, but where I live even streetside parking is mostly illegal (including in the street in front of your own property!) let alone pavement parking. Somehow, we all survive.

The road into my village invariably has a line of cars mounted upon the pavement, making pedestrians walk down the middle of the carriageway (there's no pavement on the other side). If they were parked properly then traffic wouldn't be able to pass (it's quite a narrow road).

The road into my village invariably has a line of cars mounted upon the pavement, making pedestrians walk down the middle of the carriageway (there's no pavement on the other side). If they were parked properly then traffic wouldn't be able to pass (it's quite a narrow road).

Hear, hear

The road into my village invariably has a line of cars mounted upon the pavement, making pedestrians walk down the middle of the carriageway (there's no pavement on the other side). If they were parked properly then traffic wouldn't be able to pass (it's quite a narrow road).

We get this except the road is wide enough for a full sized lorry or farm vehicle to pass a properly parked car, but not wide enough that 2 cars can still fit past their incorrectly parked one, so I don't know why the hell they do it.

My how this has got derailed! How she supervises ( or doesn’t) her own child is her business. What she cannot do is close the road. You have spoken to her, so she can’t claim cultural misunderstanding,so now you call the council and leave it in their hands. Simple.

They shouldn't be parking on pavements at all. It wrecks pavements and causes damage which risks the safety and ease of pedestrians and costs a lot of money to fix. Pavements are not built with vehicle weights in mind.

Has anybody told the multiple councils who mark out parking spaces indicating for drivers to park half on the (wide) pavement and half on the road? Or any of the council/utility workers who routinely park half on the pavement when at a job - telegraph pole, accessing underground pipes etc.?

Grumpypanda! The lady is crazy, BUT you can’t bemoan her poor English skills by saying she ‘speaks English badly’. 🤣 Tbf it’s pretty off to suggest that her son will face a lifetime of underachievement because he’s not yet in nursery.

Where I grew up a lot of us played down the end of a cul-de-sac; one of the parents handmade a ‘road sign’ that just said ‘Careful/Slow - children playing’ or something to that effect. It was on the side of the road so it wasn’t in the way of cars moving but I guess it just raised awareness.
Maybe that would be a compromise?!

yes let your 3 year old outside unsupervised what a great idea

Yogachick, how's it been derailed?

I was wondering that as well. It's evolved and widened slightly within the same milieu, as most threads do; but it's not like people have randomly suddenly switched to sharing their favourite trifle recipes!

Of course she can't do it, legally and it's not culturally acceptable here in the uk either, which is clear from almost all the replies. But honestly, I see why she wants to and it's such a shame kids can't pop out to play on the street outside their house, that's how children who live on the same street once got to know each other and were able to play outdoors without an adult having to bring them somewhere else and supervise. We have made cars more important than kids in outdoor space and it's made parenting harder and kids lives smaller and less free.

Lmao that's so illegal. She'll get a fat fine from the council if she keeps it up.

There is a tonne of outdoor space for kids. OP even states there are multiple parks in the area the mother just don't want to bother her ass parenting her toddler.

I think the conversation has moved on a bit from someone’s three-year-old, though.

Obviously children this young need to be supervised all the time anyway, so the condition on the streets is less important.

Rather, I think the problem in the UK is that older kids find it hard to be independent - it’s hard for them to walk to school, go off to the park by themselves, walk/bike independently to their activities. And that’s a shame. It’s not just about “play” in the narrow sense - it’s about kids’ ability to actually get about under their own steam, rather than being wheeled about by parents in what is essentially a kind of enormous petrol-powered pushchair. I live in a country where it’s easier for kids to be independent from an earlier age - it’s so good for kids, and makes my life easier as a parent.

Millions of kids walk to school, the reason some get driven or the bus is its completely impractical to walk.

DS school is 3 towns over at the bottom of the mountain, checking google its a 2 HOUR walk one way. Impossible to bike up the steep hills (cars struggle sometimes) and in blizzard like weather like now it would be utterly cruel to make a person attempt to walk it.

I don't know any older kids that can't take themselves to the local park etc... though.

At my son's school, loads of kids got themselves to school by bus, train, cycled or walked. There were actually very few cars dropping kids off because it was in the centre of a congested city, so if anything, parents would drive their kids to a railway station in the next town or a bus stop on a good bus route, and they'd make their own way in and out. The 4pm (ish) train out to the nearby town is usually full (standing room only) of school children. I've no doubt "some" teens are incapable of independence, but I think most still are and are perfectly able of getting themselves about.