Turning in a private road

[RoadyMcRoadUser]

Preparing to get flamed for this…..There is a large private road literally next door to my kids primary school which is situated in a cul de sac. The public road gets massively congested in this cul de sac as you can imagine. I have sometimes had no choice but to turn my car in the private road. I have never parked there and doing the school run twice a day have never seen anyone else parked up there either. There’s a guy who lives in the road who will literally stand and glare at me if I turn the car round in his road on the school run. It’s like he comes out of his house specifically at school run times to observe this.
I know you aren’t “supposed” to put an inch of the nose of your car in a private road. But equally, there’s a part of me that thinks if you are that enraged by your private road being used by anyone other than the people that live there, then why would you buy a house directly next door to a school in a cul de sac with no other turning options? Am I being an arsehole? Or is this man overly precious?

I think it’s over precious and would agree about buying a house near a school.

Do you mean shared driveway, or an unadopted road? I live on a private road, but other people can drive on it (not supposed to park on it, but they ignore that bit, and the owner doesn't enforce it). However a shared driveway is completely different.

Private property is Private property but it always amuses the justifying people do when they want something

By private road you mean, a private driveway?

A private road means that the residents pay for it and it's upkeep. It won't just be you "forced" to do a quick turn on their property, it'll be 20+ people a day who are causing wear and tear damage that they are contributing towards. It does matter and he isn't being precious.

Yabu. You not paying for it's upkeep. You think it's ok then x you by 100 people in a day

Most primary schools are within walking distance of kids homes

I used to walk dd to school and then walk home to get the car to work

It was quicker than managing the school traffic - but I wouldn't drive illegally

If it's a private road, the residents are responsible for repairs and upkeep of the road surface. I can understand why they might get a bit peeved at people constantly using the road as a turning area. My MIL has just had to pay thousands to contribute to the resurfacing of her private cul-de-sac.

Park further away from the school and walk.

How do you know the OP is able to park further away from the school and walk? Just out of curiosity. I wouldn't be able to.

Yep it will cost them. And who knows when Soneone May decide to just park there. So best to pre-empt that before it happens.

Don’t do it. It’s not your property to encroach upon.

Would you be happy about people regularly turning on your driveway? This is no different. The residents are liable for the upkeep of the road.

It’s a pain now the arse and you know you’re being unreasonable, but you just don’t care. Everyone thinks oh I’ll just pull in here quickly to send a text, pick up the kids, turn around and actually because private roads tend to be so quiet you get more of this than a normal road. The amount of times I had to swing out in quite a dodgy road position on ours because someone had pulled in was a nightmare. We ended up putting gates across ours.

So you wouldn't do it if it wasn't next to a school, but because it is, you do? And the homeowners are being precious and should have to expect and put up with it because they bought near a school? Agree with a pp, how people justify behaviors relating to what they want!

If there isn’t another safe option then I think turning there is the least worst choice. But there’s no getting away from the fact that lots of cars turning will cause potholes and damage quicker than if no cars turned there - and the residents understandably don’t want to have to pay for repairs that could be very expensive.

Is there a possible compromise where the council adopt the first few metres of the road, and maintain it, in order to facilitate the safety of the primary school children?

The vast majority who are turning on that private drive are able bodied

Most disabled parents would get access to the school car park round here

And if you are disabled you still need to wait turn legally

We have a couple of passing places and visibility splays on our road. People park on them, which has the effect of both causing a build up of traffic and degrading the surface of the visibility splay, which has now had to be replaced four times. The residents pay for that.

People are selfish.

If everyone thinks the same as you, then potentially 100’s of people are using their private road to turn around.

I find school run parents to be some of the most entitled out there. Would you like people turning around on your drive that you have to pay for any repairs to?

No choice but to turn there?

There’s really no other place you possibly turn your car around? In that case you probably shouldn’t be driving?

We live on a private road and drivers sometimes use the entrance to reverse into and turn around. I'm near the entrance so I notice it. It doesn't bother me, people using the entrance to turn is a drop in the ocean compared with the number of couriers/delivery vans coming down here. We have to pay for upkeep (it was re-tarmacked 6 or 7 years ago).

As others have said, if you live opposite a school you have to expect additional traffic at certain times of day. The resident obviously has a lot of time on his hands if he stands glaring at people.

His glaring does no harm.
The private road may be private property but no crime is committed by you crossing the threshold. If he and his neighbours wish they could install gates to stop anyone other than them using it but if they choose not to do that then that's their lookout. You are right it is part and parcel of living near a school.
Entering private property is only a crime if you are causing a disturbance, commiting criminal damage/vandalism or intending to occupy the land without the owners permission. Owners of private land have the right to fence it off and prevent access but have no particular rights if they choose not to do so unless they can prove you did damage ot otherwise acted illegally while there. So be really careful not to reverse over his precious garden gnomes.

If you are disabled and unable to walk, then I understand. Otherwise - there is no where you can park further away? There must be other roads in the area surely!

You may be very considerate OP in your speedy 3 point turn. Others may not be. Others may just plonk their car for "just a minute" or block access for residents.
He has no way of knowing who is considerate and who is not. So he's treating everyone as not.
Suspect that's because people in the main have not been

We live in a private road next to a school. We didn’t choose it, it’s military housing. People sometimes park in our road- I don’t mind if they are considerate and park away from the houses, not where we park etc but I do object to people parking literally
across the road so we can’t get out, or swinging in so violently and fast which is a danger to the children who live here and may be playing at the front of their houses.

we have a gate with a chain that doesn’t lock but it’s fun to put it across when obnoxious people park there and then they think they are locked in. (They could just lift it off, it doesn’t lock!)

I think it’s not ideal to turn in a private road but if it’s the only option (like someone’s parked in the turning space) what are you meant to do?

Do you allow people right of passage over your property @YireosDodeAver, or are your precious garden gnomes safe 🤣