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?

@BusyMummy001 I can’t speak for all private roads but my private road has no public right of access for vehicles. We’ve never restricted pedestrian access and never would so I imagine there is an established pedestrian right of way. In the time I’ve lived here we’ve changed the entrance into the road, changed it from a two way to one way system, reduced the speed limit and close our gates whenever we want to. We’ve also investigated electrification of the gates and having them permanently closed. None of this is a problem as we jointly own the land and there is no public vehicle right of way.

I live in a private road and repair is joint responsibility of the people that live there. There are 6 of us but realistically only 2 of us need to drive up to the end. There’s a right of way over my bit for the neighbour and that’s it. But… Delivery drivers in massive vans drive up it all the time even when not delivering to us and neighbour so it’s getting completely churned up. It’s going to cost a fortune to get it repaired. So YABU on those grounds. It’s one of the reasons we’ve discussed moving in the past, because people who don’t have a right to be on it, are on it.

ETA: delivery driver parking on it and obstructing our access when I was in labour and I needed to get to hospital was the one that really irked me.

@Gymnopedie people can still turn around in your road.

@NotTheCase if there is no gate across the road that is sometimes closed, it is incredibly unlikely to be a road without a public right of way. Lots of people on this thread do not understand the law. I drive down two private roads regularly. Even the one I drive down that is truly a private road with a gate that is closed every evening, still allows anyone to drive on the road. Although that is with the agreement of the landowner.

As far as I could tell, it was to do with the fact that delivery guys/royal mail etc have an implied permission to enter those roads unless you put a gate up, and this establishes a public right of way? It is definitely not clear. My dad lives in gated estate which means expressly that there is no right of way (and it’s a new road/estate, so I guess you couldn’t argue an established right of way before then). I think, perhaps, the rules on private roads need to be made clear on the highway code/theory tests but am guessing.

That said, I do think it is incredibly rude to enter the space to do manoeuvres or park any way. People three point turn in our non-private road and enter our drive when they do so - it pisses me off as we have dogs and used to have young children riding bikes on the drive that might not have been visible from the road, so I am guessing a lot of people on private roads live in the expectation that their children are safe there.

@BusyMummy001 the rules are clear, just a lot of people do not understand them.
There are a few tiny exceptions, but generally if there is a gate that is sometimes closed across the road, there is no legal right of way for vehicles. If there is not, there is a legal right of way and that right of way includes being able to turn in the road.
You can not just decide to put a gate across an existing road.

The kids being able to ride their bikes on a quiet road is about the only benefit of living on a private road. They loved it when we had the roads resurfaced and they had this new smooth surface to ride and skateboard on!

The odd parent driving into our road wouldn’t be a problem and no one would probably notice them but before we changed the entrance to the street we had 100+ vehicles every day that were linked to the school and the roads were a mess that took £50k to sort out.

I live on a private unadopted road. For those that don’t understand how they work, in our case we each own the section of road outside our homes within our boundary, diagram attached. There are 3 houses. We have ROW to drive over each other’s portion of the road for access but the public doesn’t have this right. It is a dead end so no need for the public to drive down here but they do to turn around and yes it’s incredibly annoying as we are responsible for the cost to upkeep the road. It also means we still have to be vigilant of our kids/pets getting knocked over on what is essentially a track.

@Hostilehabitat the public do have a right to drive on the road. You do not understand the law.

As you said ‘allows’ if there is no legal ‘public right of way’ (best to check with council) then it is at the preview of the owner.

Most private roads are "except for access" eg only residents or their visitors. Public highways are adopted roads not unadopted private roads. I suspect you don't understand the distinction.

A "private road" that isn't fenced off has the same status as the patches of open space all over cities that have discrete little plaques saying "This is private land and there is no public right of way" but are nevertheless an integral part of the built environment. Or of the road that I know well which is the standard route through an out-of-town industrial estate between a city and a nearby village - there's another route which takes 3 minutes more so people go through the industrial area. Every year on Boxing Day they put up barriers and close it except for people with ID connected to the site businesses and that's solely to stop it from becoming a right-of-way which happens if people are able to habitually use it unimpeded for 7 years without hinderence. The fact that these roads are privately owned does not stop them from being publicly accessible. The owner certainly has a choice to stop it from being publicly accessible.

The houses built on a private road will also have their own driveways which people will respect (or sometimes fail to, as some people are like that) to the same extent as the private driveways offf public roads. My own house has a driveway off a public road that happens to be the main walking route between a large residential area and the nearest pub and I do occasionally see evidence that people have used the accessible parts of my property in an antisocial way (taking a wee in the side alley, leaving beer cand on top of my bin shed) but trying to prevent this would be way too petty and far too much effort to achieve. I'm hardly going to sit on the porch till 3am with a pellet gun or garden hose at the ready to fight off trespassers just in case this happens. I'l get on with my life instead.

You are being unreasonable - it's a private road 🤷‍♀️ he must get sick and tired of it.

Park 5/10 minute walk away - you don't HAVE to park next to the school.

I live on an estate where all roads are private, with parking restrictions. But people are still allowed to drive there - how can anyone possibly know who's the resident and who's visiting?
So I'm surprised that this is an issue tbh.

There's a school in my Borough that has this exact issue. The guy has has got the equivalent of parking eye to slap tickets on people. Some school mums actively go out their way to cause issues with him. End of the day, th9se residents pay to upkeep that road. If people were just turning around on your drive on the daily in their droves, you'd be upset having to re tarmac it more regular.
Do you need to park on the road of the school,? Is there a neighbouring road a couple of streets away you could park on then you wouldn't need to be turning around on their road.

A private road is effectively a communal driveway. You’ve no right to be there.

100% this. You’d soon be annoyed if other people started contributing to the wear and tear on your driveway.

Literally nobody cares. It's a civil offence of trespass, it's not even a criminal offence. Gate the roads/drives off if you don't want people to use them.

That’s not necessarily always true. Some kids are in schools in different towns due to placing requests.
And unless using breakfast club, many parents would struggle to walk children to and from school and make it to work on time so are forced to drop them off in cars.
I’m not saying the OP is being reasonable turning in a private road, but it’s not true to say most people can walk

Yep your4e being an arsehole. Its a private road, you know you're not supposed to use it but feel entitled to. Its not upkept by the council so thats extra wear and tear on a road he has to pay to maintain. Just dont do it.

You are entitled.

@SadAct342 you do not understand the law

You could park further away, maybe even in a real car park, and walk, shock horror.

In terms of causing damage, the ‘just turning round’ is more of an issue than parking.

We used to share a small square of private tarmac between garages that was utterly trashed because a whole road’s worth of residents insisted on turning in it on a daily basis.

Repairs are expensive, and difficult to coordinate on shared property.

Keep off, your two seconds of convenience are costing the home owners thousands of pounds.

I live in a private close near a school. All the residents pay for the upkeep of the road including a private gardener and we also have to pay for insurance as well. As someone mentioned earlier, it isn’t just one car, it is numerous cars a day using it to turn around and then the cheeky ones who think it’s ok to park when dropping their little cherubs off. One school mum reversed over the grass the other day (needs to to do refresher driving lessons). As much as you may think it’s petty, it is no different to someone reversing or parking on your driveway everyday. @YireosDodeAver it is not about being precious, it’s about being respectful of something you do not own or pay for.