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?

That's because they own them in and pay to maintain them

How are people 'owning the road' that their cul de sac is in? Unless it's a kind of gated development, or someone is driving onto someone's long/shared driveway, then surely this is just a (public) road?

I live in a small street/road that leads nowhere, (T junction) and we frequently get vans and the like coming in, and then they reverse into people drives to enable them to turn around and leave. The road that my road comes off has a dead end too, and at least 10 times a week, I see someone coming up, and reversing into our little street when they realise they can't get anywhere (then they drive back the way they came obvs.) No-one cares.

So, does this man (and his neighbours in his cul de sac,) really OWN the road the houses are in? I doubt it. So @RoadyMcRoadUser are you talking about a private driveway here???

new roads on housing developments have to be adopted by the council. This doesn’t always happen. So the residents end up with a road that they are all responsible for
Tarmac is very very expensive

How are people 'owning the road' that their cul de sac is in? Unless it's a kind of gated development, or someone is driving onto someone's long/shared driveway, then surely this is just a (public) road?

Here it was normal housing development and looked like it had expectation council would adopt the road - so looks like normal road but was never adopted.

https://www.pureblockmanagement.co.uk/news/private-roads-what-do-they-mean-for-residents

Over the past two decades the majority of new housing developments have been built on private roads that are not taken over – or ‘adopted’ – by the local authority.
...
The law on the maintenance and adoption of private roads in England and Wales is complex. Full details can be found in this 2018 government report, but essentially there are two main types of unadopted roads:

• Private streets are privately-maintained roads where the public has a right of way. If a private street needs repairs, the local authority has the right to make it safe under the Highways Act and charge residents for the work.
• Private roads are roads where no public right of way exists. Residents are solely responsible for any repairs. These roads must be gated, unless registered, at least once a year to prevent through traffic, but this is usually the case all the time.

Reading this though it must have been a private street as there were no gates at all - though all messages though school said road.

@BrightHarvestMoon there have been multiple people on this thread that live on a private road so they are pretty common. A private or unadopted road is one that the council has no responsibility for. The residents own the land and they are solely responsible for the maintenance and insurance of it and can place restrictions on others eg no vehicle entry. We have £2m public liability insurance as we potentially could be sued if someone was hurt on our street and it was proven to be our fault.

@BrightHarvestMoon no I’m not going anywhere near anyone’s actual driveway, blimey I’m not THAT outrageous 😂
it’s basically a private cul de sac at the end of a public cul de sac on which a school is situated

To be fair, this would not bother me at all.

I couldn't get myself this bent out of shape over someone giving me a look.

I can't imagine your reaction if he actually spoke to you!

@TattiePants @RhubarbGingerJam @Autumn1990

Thank you for that information, and taking the time to post. I didn't know any of this! Every day is a school day! Probably unfamiliar to me as I have never bought a house that is less than 30 years old. So no new builds IYSWIM. Or maybe it's just that I have never lived in any place with a private road owned by its residents. 😄

@RoadyMcRoadUser

No I’m not going anywhere near anyone’s actual driveway, blimey I’m not THAT outrageous 😂
it’s basically a private cul de sac at the end of a public cul de sac on which a school is situated

nah, I don't believe ya. You're popping in and borrowing milk too aren't ya? 😆 #justkidding

@RhubarbGingerJam that link you provided is interesting. We have gates that are always open except for one 24 hour period each year (usually we pick a bank holiday) when we lock them. We were told that it was a local bylaw but looks like it’s more than then.

@WhateverMate I’m not bent out of shape 😂
I just noticed him glaring at me and wondered am I actually doing something “glare worthy” 😂 it appears I have my answer!

A private road and an unadopted road are different. The residents pay for the upkeep of both but the public have the right to freely pass on an unadopted road. A Highways or Local Authority search should inform you which type the road is.
I’ve lived on an unadopted road and now have a large wide driveway that people occasionally back into to turn round and can’t see what all the fuss is about. The resident is just being petty.

@BrightHarvestMoon in my part of the city it’s a bit of a quirk as there are 20-30 private roads, all are Victorian or Edwardian. I’ve no idea why so many were unadopted by the council around this time but only in the immediate south of the city centre. Some roads are really well maintained and the residents hold an AGM, have insurance etc but some are now in a terrible condition and I don’t know how cars manage to drive on them.

A lot of people who live on unadopted roads like to call them private roads, when in fact it they are not private at all and the public has the right to freely pass. The fact they have to pay for the upkeep is neither here nor there and is something they should have considered when purchasing their houses.

Maybe when he bought a house next to a school he didn't realise what arseholes parents on the school run can be.
I live near a primary school and regularly have parents using my driveway to turn around. There's no need to turn in my driveway, there are two large turning areas- one before my house & one after. I wouldn't mind but my car is parked on the driveway & inevitably one day someone will ding it.
It's sheer entitlement. You know you shouldn't be driving on private property yet seem to believe you should be entitled to because it makes your life easier. Find another spot to turn in, I'm guessing other parents manage to.

We lived near a pretty Cornish harbour village where a posse of locals would stride out of the homes the minute a bewildered/lost tourist car tried to turn in 'their' road. One charming gentleman would 'lose' tacks from his pockets as he neared the car.

We have something similar by our school that we originally nearly bought in. Like others it wasn't really private just unadopted and I felt as it meant we could walk it would be a good option even if busy in a morning but I'm glad we didn't as cars literally block the road for 45 mins at drop off and pick up, they park and abandon cars to drop off or arguably worse 2 parents come and one sits with the engine running yet refusing to move if they block residents in. It looks like a nightmare and a text goes out about it weekly but parents are arseholes it seems as they also park fully on pavements, over zig zags and various other parking disasters each day and mostly couldn't give a shit so I wouldn't let the glaring worry you as no doubt you are one of 100s that do it.

Absolutely you're unreasonable. Hth.

My house is at the end of a private road/ driveway. People turn in it all of the time (or drive down thinking it's a proper road until the reach the dead end). Its absolutely fine. The main wear and tear is the pavement and a drain manhole cover and we don't maintain them.

I think most people have turned in a private road at some point (sometimes you don't notice it's private until you've turned in).

I do get cross when people park right next to the 'private sign' though.

Plenty of people pull in, in front of my house. I live on a really narrow road, only 1 car can pass. The bit between our gate and the road is enough for a car to pull in. The council def don't look after that part we do (the went around it when resurfacing a few years back). I don't mind. Cars/ tractors pull in all the time. Although not to the extent I am sure they would beside a school. I would ignore the glaring man.

He can put up a gate, we could move out our gate but wouldn't be able to swing off the road without blocking it to open the gates if it was further out.

I would turn my car on it. I would turn my car on a driveway.

This. I live on a private road of three houses. We each have a double drive but we are responsible for the upkeep of the road. It only has one way in and out which means we can be blocked in if a vehicle is parked across the entrance.

I guess when they bought the house years and years ago there were nowhere as many cars on the road and more importantly, people respected other peoples property and not turn into it, block it or park in front of their drives.

Great post.😂

Maybe they have just recently paid thousands to fix potholes and are a bit protective at the moment.