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?

Of course wee turns grass brown. Especially when it's a lot of it in a small area and it's the summer!

It's currently raining, for what it's worth.

Did ours. Parson Russel Terrier. Numerous dead patches. Took a good while to recover after she died at 13.

Using public spaces as dog toilets is incredibly anti social.

It can though, if it’s too acidic

Well, I've owned dogs for over 20 years and my grass hasn't turned brown so I'm just saying that it's not my experience of dog's weeing on grass.

This is why we can't have nice things. Someone takes it upon themselves to care for or improve their area and someone else thinks they are entitled to spoil it.

Bring a large flask to rinse it, if you use the same spot.
Piss smells.

Ok, well that's makes sense. I guess my dogs don't have acidic pee then.

My council allows you to adopt tree pits and plant them up but you have to apply. Lots are planted up around here, mostly to stop dogs crapping on them.

But there is a shortage of verges around here. She goes on it once or twice a day. My husband takes her on longer walks but if he's out I can't go very far at the moment (injury) so I take her there.

Mine does. There is about 20 brown patches in the grass of my back garden.

Just have a look at the grass around a lamppost or something. Always dead. Because of all the piss.

Agree.

You know there'll be rats, rabbits, mice, and all manner of other animals pissing and shitting on it, right?

I will take a look next time I'm out, but I can't say that I've ever noticed it before.

Always happy to learn something new though, thanks to @SheReallyLikes 😊

So you think barging out of your house shouting and being aggressive is the best way to go about asking if someone could perhaps take their dog pee elsewhere?

Is she shouting at every dog owner?

kids, dogs, cars, whatever, a pubic space isn’t yours no matter how many flowers you stick around it

there is going to be all sorts of piss and shit in that grass

this is intimidation

Where do you live that there are no other verges or parks? Can't be the uk. You're never 5 minutes from an unkempt patch of council grass in the uk.
And if there is indeed a shortage of verges, don't spoil the one that is actually being used nicely!

You and your dog have just as much right to use a patch of council-owned land as your neighbour and her kids. Just because she has chosen to 'maintain' it, that doesn't mean it belongs to her and it doesn't mean she can tell other people, including dog walkers, not to use it.

People are being absurd to whine about a dog weeing on the ground. That patch of ground will get pissed on constantly by foxes, cats, hedgehogs and rats all night. Animals and birds piss and shit on your own lawns all the time without you even knowing it, and on every other green space your child has ever touched.

How do you ensure that your dog only pees there? First thing in the morning, first access to grass. Does it in fact poo there as well? If not, where does it poo? Somewhere else? In which case surely it could pee there too. Or in the gutter? In which case the same applies.

Is the woman really complaining about dog owners allowing their animals to poo on the grass and then failing to pick it up. We have this where we live and I regularly observe dog owners (or their kids who are walking the dogs) having a quick look round before scurrying off without removing the offending matter.

Just gross.

Not necessarily. Everyone around here is happy to barge it when someone ignores their dog poo. Urine, not so much.
As a result we don't have a lot of dog shit around. Still too much.

I think when people make an effort to make the street look nice it's upsetting for them to see dogs pissing on it. For the sake of neighbourly-ness I would acknowledge and avoid that bit of grass. Plenty of other grass and walls for the dog to make its mark.

Your right about the combination of issues. This hasn't come up before because we've been living very differently before, as we will be in a week or so. If she'd been polite and chatted she maybe could have understood the very temporary need, but when I tried to explain she just kept shouting and being rude and verbally aggressive. I barely got a word in.

It's a very quiet road and I think the grass sees maybe three dogs a day, if that. I've also never seen a child on it.

There is a patch of public land right next to my house.
Used for dog wees by many pooches.
Probably mice, rats, hedgehogs, stray cats, birds etc use it too.
It rains every now and again, so doesn't stink.
It belongs to absolutely EVERYONE who pays taxes, so I would never dream of running outside and shouting at people to tell them off.

She does sometimes poo there, but this is rare as she normally does that on a longer walk with my husband. I always bag it, and she has very neat poos that don't leave a trace.