To think it's embarrassing to put cones outside your house?

[Oby1802]

I have a neighbour who does this.. they aren't elderly or disabled but every time she leaves for work she gets out the cones and puts them in "her" parking space.

It's just a road so it's not an owned space.

I find it so cringe worthy and entitled? I couldn't personally bring myself to do it.

Does anyone else's neighbour do this? I've never said anything because really it doesn't make much of a difference to me except occasionally when the road is full and I could potentially have parked closer to my house if her cones weren't in the way but it's not worth moving them and falling out over! But I do find it a bit ott.

Urgh this was like my old neighbours, they would move three inches up just to be exactly outside their front door. They would then have to go out for work the next morning and car tetris would start all over again. Absolutely pointless!

@LakeTiticaca we have checked and unfortunately he has got MOT and tax so it looks like it'll be staying for a while! If it was any other neighbour, I probably wouldn't care but this guy is a nob.

Was that the Olaf one - Irish MNer, iirc?!

People are nuts.

It depends does she have a dropped kerb, do people keep parking across her drive. If so I don't blame her. There are alot of idiots who don't look round when they park and block driveway.

Putting cones out? What a weird thing to do maybe they need to get out more.

Old spinster next door didn't use cones but had those white 'T' lines painted outside her drive.

She definitely needed to get out more. There was never a problem in our road, outside her house wasn't where someone anyone to park. She wasn't disabled etc.

They'd find their way into the boot of my car, to be reunited with their tribe at the nearest roadworks (plenty of choice for that).

It'd be interesting to see what would happen if you swapped them for some (heavy) council-issue barriers to put up all the way around 'their space' instead - stopping anybody (including them) from parking there and suggesting a lot of potential disruption for weeks to come

British parking wars are the most dysfunctional thing ever!

Me too.

I don't understand this how long was the dropped kerb to take up 6 spaces?

They took over (removed) half the on-street parking. So if there was previously space for 6 cars (one per house) and they had a double drive/dropped kerb put in, that means obviously nobody can park in front of the dropped kerb, or the (wider) white H-bar.

Depending on how the dropped kerb is situated, it might also have removed extra spaces either side - e.g. if the white H-bar now only leaves room for max 2.95 cars one side and max 1.95 cars the other, that means there's only usable space for 3 cars.

I suppose, if they have 6 cars in the one household, then it means they 'take' less parking than 6 spaces out of the equation, but it's very annoying that they then get their access guaranteed, whilst everybody else has to make do and fight for the remaining too-few spaces.

We lived in a terraced house previously and in front was just free for all parking (if you were lucky to get a spot). One night we got a knock on the door from a neighbour's boyfriend who didn't live there telling us we were in his car parking spot!!! He was awful and aggressive about it too!!

Yes! Olaf! I found it! https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/mumsnet_classics/3837189-It-s-a-parking-one?page=1

I misremembered it though, so well done for recognising the thread from my very incorrect memory! Olaf (in a high vis) was sent out to stop CF visitor from blocking their driveway.

Ah, those pre-pandemic days...

Wow- you and all the other neighbours should ask for an appointment with the Council and put a joint complaint. This is way out of order and unfair.

It'd be a big red flag for me now in certain circumstances. A couple of years ago we moved into a house and noticed that the NDN was parking her car in the turning circle bit at the end of the cul-de-sac instead of on her nice big driveway and putting a cone next to it. Didn't think much of it when viewing, didn't know who was parking there at that point, could've been any of the 12 houses. Could even have been the one we'd come to view so that their driveway was free for us and the agent. Within a week of moving in we discovered that it was our immediate NDN and she was absolutely bonkers, the cone was the tip of the iceberg. The point of the cone was to warn people away from her car and she'd hold her spot with it on the rare occasion she went out. Mostly she stayed home, shouting abuse at all her neighbours, videoing anyone outside her house and phoning the police with fabricated stories of harassment. She had a couple of asbos issued over a couple of years but nothing stopped her, she didn't care and every one just felt helpless. Luckily we were only renting so found somewhere else once our contract was up.

On the flip side there's a house in my village that has to use cones outside to stop people parking. We live in a lovely spot near popular walks and so the road gets a lot of visitors parking up for their walking, plus they are next to a pub. The trouble is they have iron railings all round the house, and there's no pavement. So if anyone parks directly outside their house they actually can't get out the gate, especially with the pram. They can't remove the railings as the house is listed. Last weekend I had to help them lift the pram over the railings and the car that had parked there, and then help the mum also climb over too as the person had moved the cones and parked. They are also renting but I do wonder if the landlord could get the council to paint some lines just where the gate is, but it doesn't seem like a great use of taxpayers money.

"I suppose, if they have 6 cars in the one household, then it means they 'take' less parking than 6 spaces out of the equation, but it's very annoying that they then get their access guaranteed, whilst everybody else has to make do and fight for the remaining too-few spaces"

Yes they have space for 6 on their now v large driveway / paved over front lawn. But they only have 2 cars themselves. Rest are for their visitors....

She even swore at neighbour who parked near their big white line. Can't buy manners!

"Wow- you and all the other neighbours should ask for an appointment with the Council and put a joint complaint. This is way out of order and unfair."

Oh we did. And the ASB of shouting and swearing. But council got paid for the dropped kerb so amazingly they dismissed the complaint....

You can complain to a Council about a complaint being dismissed. It goes up in stages/levels. The policy and procedure will be on the website.

Oh, believe me I tried. They didn't give a damn

On bin day chuck em in the bin and wave bye bye

My neighbour opposite has done this. When his wife leaves in the morning he runs out like a good boy and places 2 stolen street cones in ‘her space’ outside their house.

Of course it isn’t ‘her space’ as it’s the public highway and we all park there if we pay for a residents parking permit.

I take great pleasure moving the cones & parking in that spot. It really is the small wins in life that give you the most joy.

When DP and I were dating I used to drive over to his house and there was often a couple of cones pretty much in the middle of the main road leading up to his flats. You had to swerve into the oncoming traffic lane to get round them and at rush hour they would cause no end of problems.

Eventually someone complained to the council who said they were nothing to do with them. Turned out that the lady in the house by the cones didn’t like the noise the manhole cover made when it was driven over so had literally blocked the road for months!!

I move them and park if i need the space. They don't own the road