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?

That dogs mess on playing fields too is hardly a good argument. There's plenty about that are barely usable by humans these days.
What we need is dedicated dog parks. So children don't have to play where an ever growing of dogs have toileted. Because it's disgusting in some places.

In all the dog owning I've done, the dog owners and trainers I've known, and the dogs I've seen out and about not once have I heard of or seen a dog trained to only go in the gutter. Is this something that only happens in a weirdly specific part of the country? Or just the minds of the dog haters?

It's baffling how much of a mention it's getting. Is this some kind of Mumsnet contagion? It gets read on here, thought to be a good idea, assumed to be true, and so repeated as if it's a thing, and so on it propagates. Much like the poor legal advice Mumsnet threads are rife with.

Animal piss is everywhere. It's not a kink to point that out. It's problem to be troubled by it though.

There's some crazy logic going on in this thread. I was hoping to better understand the mindset of the woman who was rude to me. It has certainly been enlightening.

A neighbour once told my mum off when she started walking our dog, as he thought my mum had let the dog poo and hadn't picked it up. The dog had just done a pee, but it makes me wonder how many other people don't know that female dogs usually squat to pee.

Anyway, she soon educated him 😆

If you'd cultivated some plants on a previously unloved bit of land, you would not like seeing a stranger coming up and allowing their dog to piss all over it, would you? It's rude, unhygienic and selfish.

Why not have it piss on the 'council owned land' on your own street?

Why not just apologise and don't do it again?

People do feel like they have a certain jurisdiction over their street as they feel they are paying ample council tax. Especially if they've invested personal time and money in making it look nice.

They don't want outsiders or thier dog coming in and pissing, dropping litter or whatever else.

So you are being unreasonable.

I’d guess she was rude because she’s absolutely had enough of dogs pissing in the flowers and kids play area. It’s pretty simple really.

You’ve made a few derogatory remarks about mumsnet and the posters on it; begs the question why you would bother asking for advice.

Really, okaaaay

Dogs weren't trained to go in the gutter, but I can certainly remember a time when if a dog started to go its owner would pull it into the gutter to do its business. I haven't had a dog for years so I've no idea when people stopped doing this but it was definitely what people did.

I wouldn't pull the dog to the gutter on the high street as she'd get hit by a car.

Of course, but as I pointed out, people seem to think my land belongs to the estate, and not a private person, despite being on my deeds. It is a little side bit of land in addition to my front and back gardens. However, it could be mistaken as being council (or in my case belonging to the developer/ management company). As it’s on my deeds however, it is not cared for by the management company and instead is looked after and planted on by myself. Sadly I am unable to fence it off. My husband said it’s come sort of restriction, so we put a private sign on it, which was kicked down. People assume the land is not ours and therefore seems to be now a greeting space for dogs. They stop, sniff, piss and destroy my plants and yellow my grass, before moving on. And owners stop and watch them, whilst checking their phones or whatever. Sometimes I run out and speak to the person to tell them that it’s private, but generally the response is to stare at me like I’m mad, allow their dog to finish, move on at their leisure and come back the next day. It’s infuriating. And what if op is doing the same and assuming the neighbour is planting on council land? Or what if it is just a nice play area for children?

That must be so frustrating. Why wouldn’t you be allowed to fence it off? What’s their reason?

It sounds like the developer has discharged their requirements re public open space but also cleverly removed their own responsibility (and extra expense for the man co) by transferring the land to private home owners. The reality is it was probably always intended to be public space.

Huh? I live literally round the corner, 20 seconds away at most. Also, it wasn't previously unloved, it's mown by the council. She's just stuck some geraniums in the middle (which no doubt make it harder for the council to mow).

Why do people try to rewrite situations to suit some made up justifications they have? Adding in bits as suits them, or removing bits they don't like. So odd.

Another day, another dog-bashing thread.

Mr Bean was ahead of his time. We need the Bean Anti-Poop Association back. (In 1993, there was the book Mr Bean's diary, in which he took it upon himself to police this.) He sent out the following letter to residents:

"Join BAPA and help me stamp out poop. Any dog owner caught fouling our paths allowing a dog to foul our paths will get a right dressing down, and further abuse. Those responsible for more than one poop will get a punch up the bracket." And he received angry replies from dog owners, and the police, after he had forced a dog owner's nose into the excreta, and tried to stick a cork up the dog's bottom.

I don’t know. I have asked my husband and he said it was a restriction something or other and probably to keep the estate open plan and looking nice, although there is no reason stated. It is frustrating.

Quite possibly. I don’t know. But seeings as it now belongs to me, I like the idea of looking after it, making the street look pretty and not having pet owners ruin it. I am trying to thick of another way to isolate it a bit. Can I legally cover it with that pet proof flooring?

I have no idea without looking at your title.

Because people can relate and it angers them.

Would anyone bother to report you if you ignored it and put a fence up? I’d do that, nonsensical restriction.

@Thanksman you have no idea of the nature of the restriction so how do you know it’s nonsensical? It might be to do with visibility for the road.

I dunno. If more people planted nice things and looked after a patch rather than let the council neglect it then it would be a much nicer environment.

I suggested that to my DH. A short fence, perhaps a little white picket thing or shrubs, but he is nervous to do it. It’s in a weird location too, right on the corner, so he’s worried about obstructing views. He won’t even let my lavender get too big.

What you need is a nice powerful hose!