To not sign this petition? Diagram included

[Whatnowthenfordone]

I live in a small cul-de-sac and my garden gate opens just as a small pedestrian cut turns into the street’s pavement and road. Numbers 1-4 on the diagram are two bedroom terraces, 12 & 13 are 4 bed semis, and the rest are bungalows. The shop is a very small Tesco Express. The green is the pedestrianised cut.

The couple from the bungalow at number 10 have launched a petition to stop access through the cut. I got a letter yesterday from them asking me to sign the petition and have already knocked twice today (waking me up the first time and was making lunch the second time so I haven’t spoken to them).

I don’t want access stopped. I like walking to the shop and elsewhere via the cut and see no reason to have to walk the long way around. On the very rare occasion you might get teenagers going to the shop on their way home who sit on the wall in the cut for a little bit, but not often. I’ve never had any trouble from the cut in the five years I’ve lived here.

But the neighbour said in the letter that the whole street has signed it but me. WIBU to refuse? I really don’t want to have bad blood with the neighbours but given Im one of the two houses which actually fronts onto the cut and don’t have a problem I can’t see what their issue is. WIBU to just hide from her and hope the Council takes no notice of any petition?

I am happy with the diagram. Clear. Bold. Functional.

The neighbour who created the petition should explain very clearly why they want the cut closed. Surely there needs to be a history of actual problems and not just angst about potential or imagined ones. My parents-in-law had a shortcut closed which ran between the gable ends and gardens of four houses. It was a very handy shortcut and saved some people a fairly long roundabout walk. But it was full of teenagers every night, shouting and swearing, drinking, chucking empty cans and other rubbish into people's gardens, damaging the fences and that kind of thing. PIL's got a bigger garden out of it😁

But if it’s a right of way, it’s very unlikely to be closed - you can check an OS map

Exactly. A woman in my street organised a petition to get our whole street closed off to traffic as apparently there was no need for people to drive up and down it to get elsewhere as there are parallel streets they could use. Obviously it didn't gather taken very seriously down at the council.

It's a massive deal to get a right of way closed.

They can't force or coerce you into signing their petition. They can ask if you would like to and then accept your decision either way. Your only options are not to either sign to say that you agree with something when you don't or otherwise avoid the person organising the petition. Just like with elections, your personal choice is every bit as valid as anybody else's.

The whole idea of a petition is that everybody who signs it agrees with the issue being petitoned for; not that a vocal, pushy and/or bullying person can coerce people into signing when only they/a minority want it.

If everybody else in the road has truly signed it (and that's the oldest lie in the book, as used by a huge variety of people with a vested interest in your consent/money), the council may go with the clear majority and they get what they want, so that settles it. If it has to be a unanimous opinion for them to change it, and it isn't unanimous, then that's just the way things go.

Like with so many parking threads, a huge amount of people fail to appreciate that their title deeds end at the boundary of their own property. Just because you happen to live in a house adjacent to the public road/amenity, that doesn't give you any more rights over it than anybody else.

I used to live 50 yards from the city cathedral; didn't give me any rights to exclusive use or the veto on anybody from further afield in the city/area from being allowed to use/visit/admire/walk slowly past it.

The diagram is fine, but it doesn't show how else you might get to the shop - can you just turn left out of your front door and get to the shop carpark that way? If so, it doesn't seem worth annoying your neighbours as you'll only be saving yourself a few metres walk at most with the cut-through.

Do you not have any idea why your neighbours want it closed? If there are people buying booze in the shop then drinking it in your road, or lobbing cans, I think they have a point. Or if people are parking in their spaces then cutting through to the shop. Seems a bit odd they'd go to the effort of setting up a petition if they weren't being affected in someway, and as it seems you have a garden separating you from the cut, you may not notice it as much as those houses who are directly on the road. But you could always sign the petition and then write a letter to the council saying you don't actually agree with it if you're worried about alienating the neighbours. Or maybe suggest other solutions, like raising the wall or adding spikes so people can't sit on it.

Is it your front garden that opens on to the cut?

PIL's got a bigger garden out of it😁

Happened to a friend of mine.

It wasn't being maintained when she asked about it, so she was given it!

If you wanted, you could always anonymously tip the council the wink that a petition is being organised and that the organisers are persistently pressurising people to sign it against their will and refusing to accept all polite declensions to sign.

Even if it would have carried any weight, that will instantly nullify any effect or influence that it might have in driving change - in spite of the fact that most councils' preference is to do nothing to change the status quo, unless they can't avoid it or if it's their own pet project. Things like this matter 10,000 times more to the resident busybodies than they ever do to the council.

They may well have a legitimate concern; or they may just have a bee in their bonnet and be the kind of people who like to make trouble and throw their weight around as a hobby.

10/10 for the diagram, and I agree with you OP, as well as commending your excellent expressive skills in the artwork you uploaded.

My diagrams tend to look like that too. I expect your science teachers at school wrote snarky comments about the quality of your graphs and bar charts.

To be fair they haven’t put any pressure on at all.

They’re a lovely couple and are always generous with their time and hospitality. They bring around toys for our kids that their grandkids have outgrown (little trikes etc) and have made us feel very welcome since we moved here. I feel a bit bad about posting now. I was just worried that saying no to signing would upset them. Especially the woman.

Is it a physical or online petition 🤔

My science teachers were fine but my art teachers always seemed underwhelmed.

Online.

But why though and what do they want doing with it?

You must know why they want it closed.

Why do they want it closed?

It looks as if its been done by a three year old. Could you not have taken a bit more care with it?

Don’t be mean. The diagram is fine and makes the cut situation perfectly clear.

As PP have asked, have you clarified what the neighbours concerns are? Given everyone else has signed, it suggests there's a something they're concerned about.

Oh and ignore the ridiculous comments on your diagram @Whatnowthenfordone . It's absolutely clear.

It took me ages.

Yea, it makes the topography very clear. Doesn’t explain what the problem is though.

OP it would be much easier to advise you if we understood what problem the cut is creating for your neighbours? Because on its face it just looks like a handy shortcut for all residents.

What's the issue with the cut?

Ah, OK, thanks - I misconstrued.

Even so, they must realise that not everybody will see things the same way that they do, if they're decent, reasonable people.

It's not a value judgement of their preferences and opinions if yours happen to be different.

Nothing wrong with the diagram. I understood it immediately.

“We don’t sign petitions for any reason, but wish you all the best”.

I don’t know. I think I’ll speak to them and ask. I’ll also ask my next door neighbour and see what he thinks. We’re quite new to the area so maybe there are historical reasons Im not familiar with. If the reasons seem valid and logical I’ll reconsider.

I had no idea the diagram would attract such a reaction 😆 It’s quite hard because the two bedroom houses are only slightly smaller than the four, but the bungalows are huge, bigger than both sets of houses, and much older, and I couldn’t quite work out how the floor plan squeezes in the bungalows. I suspect it’s because they back onto the church’s land. I will have to try and take notes if I’m ever invited back into any of the bungalows’ back gardens.