To reserve the entire park benches?

[anyplate]

I took my children to the park today and packed up a picnic, it was a woodland area with apparatus and was a short drive away.
When we arrived we headed straight to the park and thought we’d eat our picnic but every single bench had a “polite notice”
bench is reserved for children’s birthday party
don’t be that person.

There was about five benches and no one around so I got a blanket out of the car and sat on it and we had our picnic.
We stayed at the park over an hour and in that time many cross looking people went to sit down and saw the note and didn’t but there was no children’s party in the hour or so we were there.
Were they not completely unreasonable reserving every single bench for an unknown amount of time so nobody else could use it just so they were free for when they wanted?
We could have sat there eaten our lunch and gone without it affecting any party.

Perhaps it was the same CF bench fiend seeing how it worked so well last time…..

Was it an “official” notice? If not, I’d have just moved a sign and sat there. You can’t reserve benches in a public park. If you want a reserved space, have the party at home or in a venue you pay for.

Agree! It would never in a million years occur to me to reserve benches in a park. Bring camping chairs if you've got people who can't manage the floor.

This would be me.

Completely unreasonable- reading this makes me really angry! The sense of entitlement of some people is unbelievable! You cannot reserve park benches, they are for everybody! I would have ripped up the "polite notices" and chucked them away.

People really are entitled. How dare they reserve a bench that’s for everyone. I’d also have sat on it!

Near me someone created an outdoor classroom by putting up flags and a small wooden sign.

The area is protected and belongs to no one (or everyone). Lots of foxes, rabbits, badgers and nesting birds including cuckoos, kingfisher and heron.

They put up signs saying KEEP OUT while classes are on. Well, the area is for everyone so we all kept walking round there and letting our dogs run about as we have done forever (I’ve lived here my whole 52 years).

People there moaned about the dogs but it’s for everyone and it can’t be kept only as an outdoor classroom.

Some interfering busy body who ran some outdoor classes told me she’d asked the council to cut some branches off the trees but 10 huge trees were cut down and the area is now barren. I said to her “So now it’s spoilt it for everyone.” She shrugged and now no one uses it as an outdoor classroom and the animals and birds have gone

Bloody awful, hire somewhere and pay if you want a private area! FFs - I’d have a written a note on their note and taken them off.

If it’s a public space I doubt they have the right to reserve tables!?

unreal, I would’ve binned all the notices and just chilled and had my cuppa. Can’t believe the CFs of today

Your taxes pay for the maintenance of parks. Talk to the authority responsible and ask them how you reserve park benches for functions.

You will find out whether those benches were reserved for real, or someone played a trick, they they had just been painted because advertising the fact that benches are ''wet paint'' enables vandals to damage them, so a more innocent notice was displayed.

If the council tells you no one can reserve public benches, and I can't believe they do allow that, next time you see it, just test for wet paint before you remove the notice.

I'm afraid I would have removed all of the notices, ripped them up and put them in the bin. Cf-ery of the highest order!

Me too

Ridiculous, you can't reserve a public bench. Sod that, ignore and sit, will be like beach towels and they won't turn up until later anyway.

I've heard it all now lol 😆

It's not being a better person, it's just not being a wimp. Why on earth didn't you sit there? If someone is going to try such an entitled move, they could at least add the time of the party. Personally (and completely missing the point) I find picnics on benches unsatisfactory, it feels like you are all lined up waiting for a bus.

This thread makes me thankful that many of our nearby parks have reservable party pavilions. Super cheap and you get shade or rain protection.

So if a disabled couple arrive they have to stand when there’s not any kids for an hour! Whoever is there first and staying sits there! Unless its in a McDonald’s and you are booking a table this is a park!

‘Don’t be that person’? The fucking entitlement is off the scale.

Not in any UK public park I’ve ever been in!

YANBU cheeky twats lot of them and tight arses pay for a venue or sit on the floor if there’s no bench’s free

Unless they paid the council then they are stupid to even try that. I would have moved every single piece of paper and binned them.
Maybe it was a joke by some teenagers? If no one turned up maybe a prank.

😂 Brilliant!!

Absolutely right. They are paid for by taxation and are in a public place.

There is no concept of "reserving benches" in a public park surely! They were trying it on and the signs should have been ignored by everyone.

Better for reservation to add a time between say 11am -1pm thank you. Not just reserved for kids party on that basis I would have used them. Furthermore they aren’t paying for reservations the tables are local authority’s tables!

Such CFery