Neighbour using my drop kerb!

[mykerb]

A new family have moved in next door - not attached we are a row of two semi's each and so on..
I have a driveway and a dropped kerb. So it goes my drive, pavement and then the dropped kerb.

My next door neighbours have a make shift drive (from previous tenants) but NO dropped kerb, it doesn't help that their neighbours have 4 cars and two permanently parked outside their garden so the new neighbours have nowhere to park except down the road because of it but again not my problem!

They have started driving over my drop kerb to park in the make shift drive, I have started parking on my dropped kerb to make a point of it and I did block them in, to which the woman politely asked if I could move my car so she could reverse out, I told her I don't appreciate her using the kerb to park in, to which she replied that she is going to be getting the curb outside hers dropped but it will take a while due to getting planning permission etc and it's hard to walk down the road with 3 kids and a newborn so it's just been more convenient, but she won't do it again if it bothers me.

Tbh she hasn't had a chance to park there again as I have started parking in front of my drive, on my dropped kerb but my sister has said I'm being petty for no reason and making her life harder and it's not a big deal! And it's really irked me because now I don't know if I'm being unreasonable or not!

Do you live in Southwark? Their council website is pretty clear: https://www.southwark.gov.uk/parking/guide-to-parking/dropped-kerbs-and-driveways#:~:text=You%20must%20not%20park%20in,to%20access%20off%2Dstreet%20areas

You keep ascertaining it’s fine to park on a dropped kerb but show no evidence. I have shown you the Highway Code and a council website but still you protest? Blimey.

Listen to yourself, she has a fucking newborn and 2 kids and it's temporary.

Petty is not a strong enough word for what you are being!

Why would you be so petty if she’s not inconveniencing you? Your kindness would go a long way towards a neighbourly relationship but instead you’re behaving like a petulant child.

I hope they’re equally childish and unhelpful when you need a favour

Just browsing this thread and I wanted to answer this - because I do think it's interesting!

Where houses are build with driveways they always built with a drop kerb as standard. But only recently have houses been built with driveways as standard - by recent I'm thinking 30/40 years? Could be wrong on that.

Older houses tended to be built without driveways unless very very large/rich. Over time people have converted their front gardens and other front spaces into driveways in order to have somewhere to park. You aren't allowed to drive across the pavement to access your 'new' driveway unless you have paid to have a dropped kerb installed - this is because it damages the kerb (and possibly pavement isn't strong enough).

When OP says she parks 'across the dropped kerb' she means her car is on the road, positioned in front of the dropped kerb (blocking it) - not on the pavement. HTH

I hope you pop round and apologise for being such a twat OP!

You missed out quite a chunk: https://www.ealing.gov.uk/info/201178/parking/1375/dropped_kerb_enforcement#:~:text=Report%20parking%20in%20front%20of,Friday%20between%209am%2D5pm).

2/3 of their guidance is saying don’t do it, but there are local dispensations where parking is a nightmare. Most councils don’t permit it at all. You can believe that or not, and it is a grey area because of the punitive measures that can/cannot be applied, but the guidance is clear. Don’t do it.

It is not YOUR dropped curb. And nobody, including you, can block it. You are not allowed to block someone's vehicle in. However, all road users are allowed to use dropped curbs for access, it is not for you to decide that she is using this particular one incorrectly. Again, it does not belong to you, you own no part of the pavement or road.

You are being incredibly petty and you're in the wrong.

What are you even talking about it's right up there on that page in black and white the part I copied. Honestly I can't be bothered anymore becuase your just taking a piece of information that isn't relevant given they have stayed it's okay right up bear the top of the page the bit I copied thats all that matters!!!

I cba to read the whole pile-on but in brief:
(i) My feeling is the OP is pissed off because the new neighbour didn't even have the courtesy to ask if it was OK;
(ii) It is not illegal to park across a dropped kerb if it's your dropped kerb;
(iii) The Council give the householder the right to drive across the pavement to their own property when they install one - that's the whole point of the things;
(iv) If somebody else parks across it, the householder can, should they wish, inform the council who will normally send an enforcement officer of some kind to slap a £100 ticket on the offending vehicle (certainly in London) but note it is only the householder who can do this, so bright sparks suggesting the OP be 'reported' for parking across her own dropped kerb have no idea what they are talking about;
(v) The neighbour is using the OP's dropped kerb to get up off the road, but then driving across the pavement to access her own property. Driving across the pavement is illegal.

If you want to start many years of sparring with the neighbours you’re definitely on the right track. Do please carry on if you want your life to be more stressful.

I’m talking about the rest of the page as opposed to the line you highlighted. You’re being selective. Not sure I can be bothered either Little Miss Multiple Exclamation Points.

(iI) depends on where you live and it’s against the Highway Code, if councils have dispensations that’s one thing, but it’s not universally allowed.

YABU and ridiculously petty and mean

It doesn't matter what's on the rest of the page if they have clearly stayed it is okay to park across it and your family and friends if u give them permission

I mean use your head, a neighbour reporting a car parked across a dropped kerb and it's not looking their access...give over. The only person who is impacted is the resident if they are blocked in but if it's their own car they aren't going to report themselves for blocking themselves in.

I presume OP is talking about someone else, perhaps someone who she knows is on Mumsnet, hoping that they will read this and see what a dick they are.

But just in case this is real, OP - what would you do if you cut back a tree in your garden to allow more light in, but as a by-product your neighbour also got more light? Would you tell them they can't use their front room in daylight hours, because you paid for the tree to be cut back, so they shouldn't benefit from it?

Whoever this is - if it's a reverse, someone the OP knows, or is indeed the OP - they are a complete twat.

I used to work for the local authority highways dept and can absolutely confirm that this kerb that you refer to as "my dropped kerb" is absolutely not yours. When it was installed as part of the public highway it became the property of the LA. In fact even where there is no footpath they can often own up to 2m back from the highway boundary. The footpath will have been constructed sufficiently for cars to pass over onto the drive and therefore the is no concern for anyone, yourself or neighbours causing damage to the footpath.

This section of footpath inc kerb will be maintained at public expense,which I'm sure you'll be glad of.

Im actually in utter shock you refer to it as my dropped kerb 😂. Youre as bad as people who don't like people parking outside their house because it's "their space".

Thank you, yes, it does help! I wondered if houses not being built with driveways was part of the problem. Most of our houses in Australian cities have them, or if they're old enough not to, are terraces or tiny places one couldn't fit a car into anyway. The idea of having to pay for a kerb to be built was doing my head in, lol (not helped by the fact I've only been driving a few years - most of my life my view of these things was from a pedestrian's PoV).

I'm still trying to picture how OP's neighbour is using the kerb - I keep imagining her having to drive along the pavement, and think "Surely not!"

I think you owe your lovely and reasonable sounding new neighbour an apology. I’d do it before the school holidays when her kids will be playing happily but noisily in the garden; good neighbourly relations work both ways.

I thought you’d given up?! I am using my head, my council don’t allow it regardless of it being my driveway or not. Sorry but that’s the truth! Everything on the Ealing page discourages it. And in the case of this thread - it’s irrelevant - OP never said they live in Ealing, you’re making it all about you, and anyway in OP’s case it would block the neighbour’s drive. So on a bit of a hiding to nothing here…

Really the OPs attitude sums up what is wrong with the world these days. Nobody will put themselves out even a little to help another person and here the OP is in fact going out of her way (by parking on the kerb instead pf her driveway) to hinder another person. Shameful.

They aren't going to wear it out by using it, are they?

Can't understand your reaction at all.

@BetterBlues yes sort of. Housing estates built in the past didn't need to accommodate for lots of parked cars because it wasn't a luxury everyone had. You will note a lot of roads now are fairly narrow, most not wide enough for cars to be parked on either side! For housing estates being built now, it js part of their planning permissions to provide parking (ample parking, the exact figure I forget) per dwelling.
For housing estates to be taken over by the local authority, to be maintained at public expense, they need to be involved in section 38. This covers lots of areas but basically if the developers don't comply with what has been set out then the local authority are reluctant to take over ownership (making properties harder to sell) or they can "call in the bond" (bond being set amount of money put forward for each dwelling, where standards aren't met for example inadequate drainage, not enough street lights etc) where the LA will carry out the necessary remediations but it is costly. Developers don't like this and usually opt to sort the work themselves and then they can get their full bond back. Hopefully this makes sense

@Catsmere well sort of. If you find the OPs diagram it might help visualise it?

The easiest way to think about it (although not exactly the case here) is that one house has a driveway on its left hand side (to the left of the house) with a dropped kerb right in front, and the neighbouring house (the house to the left) has a driveway on its right hand side - so next to the other drive way. It can get to its driveway by using the dropped kerb and just driving slightly diagonally along the pavement.

That's not quite what's happening her (neighbours driveway is to the front of their house) but close enough!

Awful?

It's not blocking the neighbour's drive because the dropped kerb is for access to the OP driveway only. That is why they had to apply for their own dropped kerb.