Should residents be able to 'police' sections of their street?

[StreetStrife]

After just being shouted at by an incredibly rude and aggressive woman who barged out of her house to have a go at me for letting my dog wee on a patch of council owned grass at the end of her close I thought I would ask wise Mumsnetters their thoughts.

The woman who took it upon herself to police her street, and also, apparently, takes it upon herself to 'look after' this small patch of grass by planting a few geraniums in the middle, claims that because she looks after it and children play there sometimes I should not let my dog on it. Apparently my husband has "already been told not to use it" by her, so how dare I.

My thoughts are that children play in gardens and parks where dogs go all the time, that this is not her land, and that this is a convenient place for my dog to wee while we temporarily have no garden access due to building work. It is the closest bit of public grass we have, and I am currently injured and can't walk too far (although this is not a visible injury). My dog is prone to UTIs and likes to wee on grass rather than pavement, and often refuses to go if there is no grass. The next nearest patch of grass is an extra five minutes away.

This has reminded me of many incidents I've been involved in or heard of over the years, often to do with parking spaces on public highways but outside someone's house.

Should residents be able to 'police' the use of the streets directly in front of or around their home? I think no, so AIBU? If you are one of the people that think I am unreasonable I'd love to hear why, and if you do this on your street do people abide by your demands?

You have a whole list of reasons why your dog simply must piss (and sometimes poo on) a patch of grass that someone else is trying to keep nice. Yet in your head it she is the entitled selfish one. It isn’t even on your own street. It will also encourage every other dog to use it as a piss station.

What you want is for everyone to agree that this woman is wrong and you are right.

Dogs are a pain in the arse . As are many many of their owners.

But it isn’t a garden. It isn’t hers to plant flowers on.

People have been taken to court for planting flowers on land they DO own because the land is classified as agricultural or brownfield or amenity land.

If you were being petty you could look to see what the piece of grass is classified as. Interesting if you complained to the council and said that someone was screaming at you for using the piece of grass

If you plant flowers on council land it doesn’t mean you can shout at people for using it. Why would anyone think you could. It could end up with you in court

stupid woman ! Does she tell the cats and foxes not to wee there too. Ignore her and tell her this is not her land !

This kind of legalese thinking doesn’t make for happy humans. The children want a dog piss free place, all the people that live there prefer flowers than yellow grass.. the whole ethos of taking care of your vicinity is very wholesome.
your response is myopic and bot like.

Serious bunch of dog hating nutjobs on here🤣🤣 . Keep washing your supermarket shopping....

in reality there’s no yellow grass and if there’s flowers the children can’t play without trampling those anyway, so which is it?

The grass is not hers to plant things on. It's there for everyone to make use of, including dog walkers.

Quite amusing that this seems impossible for some posters to grasp.😆

Sums it up perfectly.

Why must public land be used dog toilets though? Can dog owners not make use of it some other, more pleasant way like everyone else? Public =/= personal dog loo.

Why are you making stuff up to try and support your weak argument? There was no piss on the geraniums, this only happened in your mind.

So to you it is ok for someone to be so angry over something like this they are straight out rude and aggressive towards people out of nowhere? I guess this helps me understand that mindset, even if it appears completely irrational to me. I see this woman out and about, she could have just talked to me if it was bothering her.

If the roles were reversed I would realise I cannot control what other people do on publicly owned land and said nothing. It literally would not have bothered me one bit. Dogs wee. It rains. Life goes on.

It’s a dog? They’re trained to wee outside they cannot differentiate between a drain and a bit of shitty council grass.
Grown men on the other hand…..

Nah, everyone has a right to walk their dog, along any public street. And dogs will piss when they need to.

These are simple facts of life understood by any child, but apparently too difficult for some posters here to grasp.

WTF am I reading. It's grass on the fucking street people not her garden!

It's not her problem you have a dog you apparently don't have facilities for and can't look after.

Batshit! 😆

there will be foxes and rats and cats and all sorts peeing near her geraniums

Presumably they all have their own facilities!

Nobody likes their immediate environment stinking of piss.

How strong do you think dog piss is?

Normally on these threads I think the dog owners are the crazy ones so this is new!

Op says her dog can differentiate...

What happens if OP walks to the next patch of public grass and a neighbour who lives near that also tells her that her dog can't pee there because the children play on it?

Personally, I'm not a dog fan and couldn't care less if they were banned entirely. However, I also see how much joy some people get from them, so wouldn't campaign for a ban either. As such they need to pee somewhere, and if that somewhere is public land then so be it.

I thought she said her dog gets UTIs? Poor thing let it do its wee mails in peace 😂😂

Dog owners certainly should have a responsibility to collect their dogs' poo when out walking them. They can't be expected to collect the dogs' wee.

Responsible dog owners know that their animals need exercise, and in residential areas this means taking them for walks along the public thoroughfares, which are open to all members of the public including dog walkers.

The idea being put about in this thread - that the public thoroughfare somehow "belongs" to the people who happen to live on the street in question - is laughable nonsense. Any member of the public can walk along any normal public street, and take their dog with them on a lead for exercise, and that doesn't mean they're being "nasty" or "thoughtless" (unless their dog is a vicious type who shouldn't be out and about, even on a lead).

I'm not a dog owner and often find dogs annoying. But the ones I find annoying are the mindless barkers, who are often neglected, neurotic animals who are not given any exercise (or even companionship) by their owners.

Nasty case of 'can't be bothered to read the original post or the original poster's updatesitis here today.

Dog pee does smell on public footpaths, rots wooden and metal gate posts and often food crops can't be planted in fields next to public footpaths due to the high nitrate content in soil. It is disgusting how many owners allow dogs to cock their legs or squat where they like. Imagine if 15 million people peed and pooed in parks and on paths and verges. Yet so many dog owners allow it, or can’t cater for their pets’ basic needs on their own property so we all have to subsidise them.I have come to the conclusion that the poor training and care of innocent dogs is perfect example of declining standards of respect for others and society.

There must be so many places the dog could piss that wouldn't annoy anyone?
I think we're just going to continue to disagree on this one. Which is fair enough.