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?

Good point. I’d want to find out exactly why the restriction was there though.

She planted geraniums there, you don't live on the same street, your dog pissed on them. She was angry. You were being unreasonable.

Why can't you see it's not a nice thing to do? You knew she planted the geraniums there so why allow dog to piss on them? Can't you see how you wouldn't like it if the roles were reversed?

So @BlackCatGreyWhiskers would be correct then if it’s on the corner.

She has no right to police the grass, but if you deliberately take your dog to wee there I can see why she’s pissed off with you.

YANBU OP. It’s not her garden. Simple.

You know all manner of different animals will be pissing on it daily though, right?

Why should owned pets be held to the same standards as wild animals? Pigeons probably shit on your roof, doesn't mean I should too.
There's vast numbers of dogs about these days, they simply cannot be treated as though they are nature. And in reality, most wild animals don't actually make a habit of weeing on open grass verges in the suburbs.

I don't believe in vigilantes.

On the other hand, when there is a parade of dogs going past pissing on your property it is not very nice. I'd prefer it if dog owners got their dog to piss on their own house.

Of course I care about having a nice lawn, what a ridiculous statement and assumption. If I didn’t want lawn I’d have paved it lol. I’m just not batshit crazy over some dog pee and yes I love my flowers too.

Like I said, the batshittery is hilarious. Thanks for the laugh.

Not necessarily. There's a road near us where the 1970s houses are subject to a restrictive covenant preventing them from building walls or fences between them and the pavement. It's a shame because they have huge front gardens that can't be made private. The idea was to maintain an open aspect for the benefit of all but it dates from a time when people were more respectful of other people's property and doesn't really work now.

People have similar patches of land near me ( you may even live near me 😀). The houses are about 50 years old and slowly people are growing hedges, putting up small fences etc. Some have even got planning permission to extend on this previous open land.

This is hands down the most batshit crazy thing I've EVER read on mumsnet.

I’m also in my late 60s, so perhaps we live in different areas. I live near the entrance to the local park and I can tell you it absolutely reeks.

That made me larf.

Gotta love Mumsnet.

My estate was built in 2017, so it’s still fairly new. I don’t think anyone has fenced in their front garden yet. As soon as the first person does though!!! 😂

I suspect people would be so confused if I fenced in our ‘extra garden’. They’d probably think we were nuts. It does look like just a small area of green that isn’t attached to a house. But once I tell a person, it would be nice for them to keep their dogs off it.

You must be new.

Not even the most batshit thing I've read this afternoon.

It’s not the person’s property

So if you plant flowers in a random bit of grass that makes you the ruler and enforcer of that little bit of grass.

If you plant flowers on pieces of grass that is on the side of the pavement, expect them to be walked on. Choose plants that spring back if you must plant them. But don’t start screaming at people for walking on the area that is meant to be walked on and don’t start throwing a hissy fit if a dog has a wee on an area that has probably seen its fair share of wee and poo from other animals wild or otherwise.

TBH I would say she probably needs more going on in her life if it has got to this stage.

By all means keep places tidy but don’t take over what you don’t own and expect the general public to conform to your rules.

I was going to suggest selling it back to the developers but they’d probably try to squeeze another small house on there! 🤣

This thread is actually nuts. I feel like I’m a fairly reasonable person but this is the first thread in ages where I’m definitely in the minority. So some woman has planted some geraniums and thereby commandeered a piece of (council-owned, definitely not hers) grass, and because of that is apparently allowed to dictate what the space is used for and yell at people she deems to not be using it correctly? That’s way more antisocial than letting your dog wee on a public verge.

But the council are just going to mow them down. She needs to understand that planting flowers on public land doesn’t mean she can police what happens on that land.

To answer your question residents shouldn’t be able to police sections of their street, everyone has different standards and who is to say that the particular resident is doing what is best for the street or have they just decided to make someone’s life difficult because they don’t like them.

Are you sure the ground you are taking your dog on is communal? I own a patch of grass round the side of my house that is outside the garden wall, it really annoys me that people allow their dogs to treat it like a toilet. I have asked some to not do it as I own the land and I have received varying responses from people who weren’t aware it was private land who have stopped to people who have told me they have no control over their dogs toilet habits.

I am currently debating digging the whole lot up and either putting gravel down or wildflowering it.

I just would not do it. I'd see that someone has tried to make it nice at their own expense and treat it like any other garden with geraniums or flowers. And direct my dog to a much more unloved looking area.

But this isn’t her property

Yes. It’s all grim - teach the dog to pee in the gutter. 🙄