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?

Tell her to ‘do one’? How vile. People like you do nothing to make society better. How about entering into a civilised conversation or trying to be empathetic? That’s where the moral high ground lies. Not thuggish abuse.

Dogs don't "wee where they wee", they wee where their owners take them. They are not wild animals.

A man in my area works hard keeping a small patch looking beautiful. Dogs peeing on it leave brown circles. He gets very upset.

I do dislike people allowing dogs to pee on street furniture. It rots it, and is disgusting for the poor people that get to repaint or replace at intervals.

Yet people think it’s ok.

Fair enough. Personally I hate the little patch of grass near us because it has become a dog toilet. I can’t understand why people
who choose to own dogs then dirty nice areas rather than using a gutter or overgrown areas or even their own areas.

I don’t think she has the right to tell you off, but I don’t blame her for trying!

RTFT. Classic Mumsnet overreaction response based on poor reading comprehension/not bothering to read all the OPs posts 😆

Dog wee can sometimes ruin lawns if a dog consistently pees in the same spot. So she's probably aware of that and doesn't want the grass in front of her home to go patchy and yellow if she's seen your dog peeing on it multiple times. It sounds like she is just houseproud, but could have asked you more nicely.

Because dogs naturally have nitrogen in their pee from the normal breakdown of proteins, when it hits the grass it can ‘burn’ the area they pee on. A common misconception is that the grass is damaged because of the pH (acidity) of the urine, but this is not true.

Is it really worth dying on a hill over? I’d take me dog elsewhere

Would you let your dog wee on your own flowebed? Don't you at least chuck some water down when your dog has pee'd in your yard or garden?

She's injured and her garden is being worked on. The dog won't die if it's taking short walks for a couple weeks.

Also her husband is also walking it

White pooh was because of the diet, not from being left. 😂

I'll bow to your superior knowledge of dog shit. Ill look out for you on Mastermind. The main point was that people didn't even clear up after that dog shit, let alone train them to be polite pissers.

I wonder have you always had male dogs? I believe it's more of an issue for female dogs due to hormones or something.

YABU. If your dog needs to wee on grass get some turf. In Spain you have to clean up
after your dog wees with a bottle of water. It’s policed and people are fined.

It’s rank to let your dog foul a public area and not clean it up.

Dog pee kills grass. Why don't you make it pee in the gutter? This would annoy me too. She's doing a nice thing to improve the street environment for everyone and you're letting your dog piss on it.

It's dog wee, not plutonium.

You are not unreasonable at all, dogs can wee anywhere on a public street, just keep.off private gardens

Dogs don't stop and ask their owners before they wee. They just do it.

Maybe because you keep doing it, water down the wee and poo, it doesn't matter if it's neat poo whatever that means, it still leaves a trace, she has planted flowers to make it look nice so obviously don't let your dog use it, that's just taking the mick to antagonise her.

The neighbour is being gratuitously antisocial. It's probably her hobby.

It wouldn't surprise me if she goes out there to tell the kids playing on the grass to bugger off, too.

"You'll damage my feckin' geraniums, get orff out of it!"

Get a life. Dog hater

yes, she would be the type to complain if you park in front of her house too I imagine, and never mind that it's legal to park there.
It's great that she is planting flowers on public land, but she needs reminding that it is public land and she doesn't get to control what happens to it.

What about cats? Bet you have one...do you police where it shits and pisses?

If the OP were civic minded, this thread would not exist.
We just aren't great at sharing space in this country and anywhere where people are, nimbyism runs amok.

And I do not blame them one bit.

In London, there are far too few areas, no matter how expensive to live in where there is a guarantee of consecutive streets where the house fronts, pavements etc look clean and pretty.

And that's the capital of England.
Only Paris can compare on the Western Mainland for filthy capital city status.