AIBU to be irritated at new neighbour (parking)

[FrozenLimeMargarita]

Visualise a London road of the slightly wider villa-style Victorian terrace houses. The road is single track, one way. Parking is in this parallel to the road format:

/|-@-/|-@-/|\

They are little bays marked up for two cars lengthways, then the bay terminates in a traffic-calming outcrop with a big oak tree before dipping back in as the next bay starts then pops back out with another tree and so on. These bays are on either side of the road. There are 10 bays in total and 10 houses. So spaces for 20 cars. There is little to no other parking locally as it is more of the same style streets on either side.

However, these bays do not belong to each house they are just a version of on-road parking. Whilst we all have never agreed to just use the two nearest your house, the road has a consensus that there are 20 spaces for 10 houses so that's has been what has happened over the years. Each house has two spaces and it's the two spaces nearest your door. We knock and ask, or trade off places if there are visitors or a household has an extra car. For example Vera* down the end only has one car but Betty uses the other space on an agreement for when her granddaughter stays, which is most days and so on.

A new neighbour moved in 6 weeks ago and has......

One VW camper (takes up a two bay)
One works van (takes up a two bay)
A tonka toy type truck (takes up a two bay)
and a family of 5 each with a car

So while I understand none of us own the road but buying a house with the knowledge that you have enough vehicles to wipe out over half the whole roads parking is just straight-up CF behaviour.

AIBU

How about they consider having fewer vehicles, given they live in a city such as london

I also would like vehicles must be moved every 2 weeks? as a minimum and, of course no campervans etc.

Is there a law i've seen somewhere that restricts commercial vehicles being parked on public roads overnight?? my Dad has an issue with a works van that gets parked every night covering some of his dropped kerb and someone said to report them for this law

A neighbour came by and updated me (while dropping a parcel off) and said that one of the more affected neighbours* knocked and asked them about the parking.

They were told by the big car family very calmly, politely but firmly that they just didn't care. (which was as expected)

The road did have a discussion about permits but some of our older residents got really upset and worried about the cost as well as the logistics as they have family and carers in regularly. It's close to £200 per year per car with £100 for extra cars - there are exceptions but most are elderly, but not disabled. Vera* for example has carers twice a day, her daughter pops in mid-morning and her Son at dinner time. She also has a companion who stays regularly. thorough she has a lot of care needs she does not have a disability as such.

So I was advised that operation 'half and half' will be beginning this weekend. there is a uni lass whose desk is up against the window of the middle house and opposite her is a woman who WFH. The big car family tend to go out en mass at the weekend so each household will half and half the spaces. The two lasses are going to keep an eye out for spaces opening up.

I think it will get old fast, cause bad feelings and not really achieve much - but I think everyone is beyond irritated with the sheer volume of the spaces being used by one household alone is a place where spaces are known to be a premium.

(*) The big car household likes to park as close to their house as possible so tend to monopolise the bays on either side of the road nearest their house which pushes everyone outwards but means that most of the time their nearest neighbours are the ones hunting down spaces. Whereas the bays further down are then just becoming a free for all, but your odds are better.

That's galling.

It will be interesting to hear the outcome of the counter offensive, if you have time to update.

You could ask for controlled parking for a 2 hour slot each day.

But afaik a majority of residents will have to vote for a consultation to take place, and then a majority approve in the official consultation.

And the council might refuse a CPZ for the lad anyway on the grounds of various local policies etc.

It is actually expensive to install and monitor a CPZ.

Wow. Ignorant fuckers. People keep doing this where I live, and it's driving me nuts. A few houses have their own parking, and everyone else has to park on the street which works as long as people don't take the piss...but they do. People keep moving in with multiple cars when they can see the houses do not have enough parking to accommodate their vehicles, and they proceed to cause disruption parking where they shoudn't (no spaces, eg on pavements or across other peoples parking areas) or by taking up other peoples established 'spaces', no fucks given. Yes technically they have the same rights as everyone else to on-street parking, but FUCK OFF and find somewhere that has parking that meets your needs instead of fucking it up for everybody else. It's just twattish behaviour. It's also why I deliberately looked for a house with its own parking so this kind of foolery wouldn't be an issue for my own car.

It's for this reason I would fully support paid parking permits for anybody who has more than one car per household that needs on-street parking. Controversial, sure, but roads are for driving on, not clogging up with parked cars and causing nuisance and impeding access for other residents and road users. Plus the council needs the funds in our area.

Good luck with this OP, I hope you and your neighbours manage to outwit the parking twats and force them to deal with their excess cars by parking elsewhere. Bet they'll just get progressively more unpleasant, though.

Would your elderly neighbours qualify for brown badges? Carers permits are usually only a few pounds for the year, discussion with the council/local councillors or even if you have a good MP would most likely be the only way you are going to resolve this at all.

You aren't dealing with reasonable people. I'd definitely check on the restrictions of campers and works vans too, they may be wrong about how legal that parking is.

Clearly you share many characteristics with the selfish entitled neighbours.

I seriously need updates, OP!!!! Good luck. This is absolutely maddening.

BCH (Big car household) did proffer a solution during the chat with the neighbour.

The bays are broken up by an outcrop of a Trapezoid (half hexagon) shape which has a huge oak tree in each (and flowers as we all plant in them). There is one of these between each set of two spaces, and two at either end of the road.

BCH asked if we had thought of cutting the trees down or if the trees 'had an accident' and they had to be removed parking would then be able to happen on the resulting spaces. Neighbour pointed out that wouldn't work that well, but BCH felt it would solve the problem as the road would then have just a line of cars like a traditional terrace road and everyone could shuffle about.

The trees do not have a TPO on them, but uni lass is speaking to the trees officer ASAP as the park at the end of our road does have TPOs and they are the same set of 'planting' - so we can see if protection and preservation can be extended. she also noticed that an identical road a few rows over has TPOs.

Do the neighbours realise that trees have massive underground networks of roots? They aren't easy to accidentally kill

The thought of huge oaks being killed is dreadful!

Good luck with project half n half, sounds like a brilliant neibourhood initiative. Hoping the CFs get their comeuppance.

What inconsiderate arseholes. I hope operation half and half is successful.

Parking must be amongst the things that have the highest irritation factor between neighbours.

Our houses are a few years old and there are various covenants, including parking. People seem unable to grasp that if you have four people with cars in a house with two parking spaces, it’s not going to work.

Yours OP, are the epitome of selfishness, as evidenced in particular, by the fact that they really don’t care and that they have suggested the removal of trees as a partial solution. They must have known the parking situation when they bought the house.

You and your neighbours should make life difficult for them if you can.

Resident parking permits usually come with visitor tokens/permits for carers etc

Where I used to live they also limited it to two cars per household.

I would probably go back over the local schemes that are similar and see if it's worth resurfacing the plan.

It's a shame the BCH has ruined the situation

Are you the new neighbour? 🚗🚗🚗🚗🚗🚗🚗🚗

This would piss me off more than anything. “Let’s get rid of beautiful trees so I can park my 8 cars”

fecker. Please get a street WhatsApp (without the CFs) so you can all stop them from parking !

This sort of thing is why I would make on-road parking illegal. Zero tolerance. Straight to the crusher.

Wow that's a lot of cars! I'm ready for the updates!

Like others I'm usually a strong advocate for you don't own the road but the new family must realize that they are being selfish hits.
I think residents parking with carers permits is the only solution.

Taking the trees off the street could reduce all your house prices significantly - by up to 20%! (https://www.tabtrees.co.uk/blog/do-trees-increase-property-value/)

This ☝️

Some people do use campervans as their daily. We did, my brother and some friends do. Not a motor home, but a vw