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

It is the new family's fault. They chose to move to a street without sufficient parking. They don't need 8 vehicles, they just want 8 vehicles, and to hell with their neighbours.
They should have moved to outer London where property is a bit cheaper and there's more space on driveways and the street.

Our neighbours with the 6 cars finally moved Hooray! But they moved further into London. I wonder how they managed in Fulham to find spaces? Possibly double parking and pissing off their new neighbours

Is there any update on this OP? Have you and your neighbours been able to carry out your silent protest?

Hope everything has worked out OP. NGL I was hoping for live updates over the weekend, but perhaps you were too busy shuffling cars around!

It’s going to be a problem which doesn’t have an end. You won’t be able to drive them off the street, you won’t be able to keep up the game of musical cars. I know the permits are a cost issue, but it really is the only way to limit their parking.
Hope something works out!

Sorry - I didn't realise there would be requests for updates I only posted to have a rant.

Half and half worked to a degree......BUT.... BCF decided to knock on the door of Vera* on Sunday to complain upsetting her. Vera is not a 'near' neighbour and neither was she participating in the half-and-half so cynically I feel they went for a soft target.

Vera was so upset that she asked everyone to stop the half and half, but everyone was outraged and it caused a frankly unacceptable escalation where BCF came out Monday morning to find a number of their cars had flat tyres. (air being let out not slashed)

No one is owning up and BCF is creating merry hell about a toxic and unwelcoming street while heavily hinting that it is racially motivated. (trust me, it is just about the parking)

It's been quiet since and they came out to their cars being untouched this morning.

I want to be clear here, the tyres thing should not have happened, no one I spoke to has condoned it at all and we are genuinely stumped about who did it - it was not caught on a few ring doorbells in the street so whoever it was has ninja skills.

We are all due to have a talk about permits at the end of the week. The whole street is in agreement about TPOs and the Uni Lass is on it with the local auth. For the poster that asked re Telly Hill, other side of the river but about the same distance out from central.

Absolute low life intimidating an elderly lady.
Hope you get your TPOs and they can't park more than 2 vehicles in the street at all.

What have the done with the king vehicles if you guys have managed to block off the double length spaces?

That was meant to say what have they done with the long vehicles. That’s why I get for typing without my glasses!

Poor Vera. That is shocking behaviour! NGL, I wouldn’t condone letting the tyres down, but I would secretly think they quite deserved it.

To the person who asked what they did with their long vehicles - The VW van didnt move, so no one was able to half and half that space. Only the tonka truck moved and the two elderly ladies who moved their cars into the spot don't drive often so the space will be blocked for a while.

The half and half worked with all other other cars in that everyone got back two spaces - with the VW van taking up the two spaces for the BCF. Where BCF are now parking the rest of their cars I don't know.

The elderly ladies, one older gent and two families on the street are pushing hard to keep the half and half rather than everyone being penalised with the huge expense of asking for parking enforcement. COL has impacted a number of them, some are on fixed incomes and they would like not to have another significant yearly expense.

I think the next time it rains or the BCF family has a large shop or people visiting they are going to see the blocked spaces and just start hammering on doors and it is going to end in tears.

If they start harassing neighbours they might find a few visits from the police more annoying than having to park their 5 vehicles somewhere else.

Wow, I was reading the OP all ready to be all "you don't own the road, they can park where they want", but one family effectively taking up ELEVEN bays?? absolutely ridiculous. Keep up the affront until they get tired of being so selfish I say.

My sentiments exactly.

That really is a 'them' problem, and shouldn't be the problem of everyone else on the street, why buy a house with no off road parking and very limited street parking when you have eight vehicles? Madness.

Yup. My cousin has multiple cars along with a couple of tractors (as he is a contractor who works independently and is hired to do railway work etc so needs his own tractors and equipment). He could have parked them up on his residential street, it was allowed. Instead, he moved house and bought somewhere with a decent bit of land round the back with tall trees and he turned it into parking for his vehicles which are mostly blocked by the trees so residents don’t have to look at them. Best he could do, because he didn’t want to be a dickhead.

In a garage or on private land. Far too many vehicles for one household to keep on public roads.

Given they live in a capital city, could they think about using public transport/walking/and cycling, are they going to live in the stone age forever?

They either find somewhere to put them (rent or buy a garage or some land elsewhere to park them on) or quite simply don't own so many vehicles.

They can hammer on doors all they like but they'll get the same response they gave your neighbour who knocked on their doors.

Also, re: TPOs on trees, not only do they take time to get into place, they're frequently ignored. I can’t tell you how many times I've either witnessed or read about people cutting down trees with TPOs on them and the council doing sweet FA about it. Also, if, as BCH eluded to, one or two trees were damaged in "accidents" then nothing would be done about that for sure as it was an 'accident'

You say they bring up racial discrimination as an explanation of your behaviour. Respond by saying that by taking over half the parking spaces they are directly discriminating against the disabled people( the elderly) living in your street who are not very mobile, and actually depend on their or their visitors cars to go to appointments, supermarket deliveries etc. You are thinking of reporting them for committing a hate crime.

Should maybe try to make them think.

Further update

Only the Tonka Truck remains and takes up two spaces but it is 'their' bay.

BCF did try and have a word with their neighbours about how unfair the half-half was as the occupants of the bays don't own the road so they have no right to 'reserve' the other half of the bay. They called on Gwyn* who takes no bother from anyone and was very polite but blunt about the hypocrisy of complaining about 'fairness' in their position. The day after this confrontation the cars/camper/van all vanished...... but then so have our bins!

It was bin day yesterday and the bin men walk up the street and gather them up to the end, so the lorry doesn't have to come down the one-way street and have to double back on itself and a wasted journey.

The whole street bins then just vanished at some point in the afternoon!

We are hoping it is just a demonstration of pettiness because they are £75 each to replace according to the council (who have also confirmed that they are not doing a replacement exercise or took them for some other reasons) They only replace bins if the bin men lose it... but they were adamant that the bin men could not have misplaced 10 bins.

Ten whole bins. Gone.

So the CF bin is the only bin which wasn’t stolen by the bin thief? How bizarre!

Sorry if this is a stupid question but what does "half and half" mean in this context please?!

The spaces are in blocks of two. Residents have been parking across the middle, effectively taking both spots.