Parking wars

[Whoosher]

Another parking thread I’m afraid. Am I within my rights to ask someone not to park outside my door all day..?
backstory:

We live in a semi detached townhouse with a drive and on street parking, our drive is really thin with a metal gate down the neighbours side, my car doesn’t fit on it - I can’t open the doors both sides, and have 5 children including a baby in a car seat who I can’t get in or out if I park on the drive. So DH parks on the drive and I park on the street directly outside of my house. Attached neighbour parks on the street directly outside of their house. The drives are to the sides of the house so where we park is literally outside of our doors.

My DC go to a school that I have to drive to, but there is a school at the end of the joining road to ours, so at school drop off and pick up time lots of cars come and park on our road and the surrounding roads. I leave for school just as these parents are arriving, so once I’m gone someone parks outside of my house but this causes no issues as they’re always gone by the time I get home.

However, for the past couple of weeks I’ve noticed a car parking on our road and staying there all day - I think they work at the school. The last few weekdays she’s arrived just as I’m getting in the car, she waits for me to go then parks outside my house and stays there all day. I know I don’t own the road and it’s not legally my space, but it’s a big inconvenience as I then have to park down the road, which is annoying when I’ve got a baby in a car seat. When I get shopping etc, I have to either leave the baby in the car down the road or in the house while I go up and down the road bringing the shopping in. I’m always lugging things in and out the car - car seats for older kids etc and it’s annoying especially when it’s raining.

There are plenty of on street spaces that aren’t directly outside of someone’s front door, and she can clearly see that I’ve got a baby.. AIBU to ask her to park somewhere else if she’s going to be there all day?

Definitely speak to her. That would be my first thought. Then if nothing changes, start making life a bit inconvenient. Just a few games, call your kids school and let them know you’ll be a bit late, therefore messing with her timings a bit.
leave a pram/buggy/bicycle/bin/traffic cone in the space accidentally ( have your husband keep an eye) so she has to physically get out of her car to move the obstacle. Park down the street as a once off and have your husband’s van in the space some morning.
technically she’s legally allowed to park there, so there’s not much you can do, but maybe let her think that this space is a bit less reliable moving forward.

You're complaining about not being able to park closer to your front door when you've been food shopping with your baby! Why did my comment make you laugh? it was a genuine way I thought you could make your own life a tiny bit easier 🤷‍♀️ don't have 'all these kids' then moan about it. Buy a house with a proper driveway 👀🤷‍♀️ or don't live near a school.

God that just sounds exhausting. Just talk to the woman.

Yup.
The request by residents asking chap not to park his great car on the pavement was met with "but I've got small children I need to get in the house".

If there are other spaces in the street, I would ask her. She probably doesn't realise that your car doesn't fit on your drive or that you have twenty children. Either speak to her or write a polite note.

If I was the driver I wouldn't mind that at all, well as long as there was some acknowledgement that I was within my rights to park there. It would get my back up if someone simply said 'do not park here'.

You don’t have a right to a space on a public road.

However I work in a school where the car park isn’t big enough for all the staff. We are asked frequently to be mindful of the residents when working and lift share where possible etc.

I think it’s general courtesy personally and staff are all on board.

So it may well be fruitful to contact the school.

I would chat to her and explain what you have said here. Just because she can dosent mean she should. If there are other options why wouldn’t she use them if what she is currently doing is an inconvenience to someone?!

@itbemay1because it is a public road and no one owns the road. Both people have an equal right to park there. I live by a church. On Sundays I can’t park near my house because of the church service if I need to go and come back. I have park roads away away (and this was the case when I had small children). But I knew when I bought the house the location and I can’t ask them nicely to move as they need the parking space as much as me.

If it’s that bad, where’s the delivery driver going to park? 😉

Please keep us updated if you manage to speak to her! I would 100% stop doing it if you explained and asked me if I could find an alternative, I don’t even have kids myself but I’d be mortified to think I was inconveniencing a Mum with a wee baby! Yes I know we don’t own the roads outside our houses but I like to think most people are fair-minded and would see your point of view (she said hopefully! 🤣)

That sounds really bloody annoying. I live opposite a school too and some of the staff park in my road. Some better than others! It’s the parents that are the real CFers though!

People who use wheelchairs and mobility scooters also rely on dropped kerbs to enable them to cross roads - car drivers could bump up and down if they had to, but disabled folk can't.

This is a part of strategic council planning when they approve one of their kerbs to be dropped.

I find it interesting how many people seem to think they have a moral 'right' to a space on the public road outside their house - they 'need' it - but nobody seems to care about people who live in houses on roads with double yellow lines outside.

If you're of the opinion that people who only have on-street parking outside their homes somehow have more claim on a space in the road for whatever reason, I presume you would thus believe that somebody around the corner on the main road - with no parking allowed whatsoever - who is disabled and/or has more young kids than they do, would have even more 'moral right' to that space; and thus the householder adjacent to it 'should do the decent thing' and leave it for the disabled mother of 6 on the main road just around the corner rather than taking it for themselves?

Follow her home and park outside her house just before you go on holiday for a couple of weeks😂

After all, she doesn’t own the road 🤣🤣🤣

I've been in a similar position, OP, although on my case the problem was drivers parking their car outside my house for a week at a time. They absolutely had the right to do that but it made my life very difficult with young children and shopping etc. Eventually, in both cases, I wrote a very polite note saying that I knew they has every right to park there but explaining the problems and suggesting other places nearby where they could park instead without causing problems, and that I would really appreciate their help. I put the note under their windscreen. It worked on both occasions.

And then find that she has a private drive that is sufficient for her requirements!

If she doesn't, then yes, the same rules apply there... but she hasn't been arrogant in claiming to own a part of the public road and ordering other people not to use it; she's just using an available public space as all road users can/do as standard.

I know you said you don't want to speak to the school as you'd feel like a CF - but I think you should reconsider.

A politely worded note saying xxx numberplate has been parking outside my door, and while you understand she is not doing anything wrong it is causing you inconvenience with a young baby and for safety reasons you don't want to leave them in the car or house alone when loading up the car/taking shopping in etc. Would she consider parking elsewhere, at least while the baby is small. It's not that the space always needs to be empty, and you understand it'll be used on the school run, but it's that the space is then taken all day.

She probably thinks you're heading off for the day and has no idea she's causing you to be inconvenienced.

What's the worst that can happen by asking?

To avoid the issues you’re complaining about?

Up the road and use his wheel trolley thing to bring it to OPs door. OP gets a space further up
the road.

Can you open your driveway up?

Why should you? Well, because you bought a house without sufficient off street parking and you’re complaining about having to park further down the street?

You acknowledge that people parking on the road outside your house is perfectly legal, and getting a shopping order is a solution to part of the problem you created for yourself. I don’t think it’s an unreasonable suggestion tbh. No one is obligated to leave a handy parking space for you right where you want it, so you have to find ways around it.

Yes, of course you can ask. If she's a decent person, she will stop it. If not, I would just be late leaving every day for a week until she fucks off elsewhere.

But similarly, OP is not required to leave a handy all-day parking space for some entitled woman to act as if it is her personal reserved parking spot.

She doesn’t, it’s just a road. OP can leave her car parked all day, she doesn’t “have to move for someone else”. Problem is OP needs to go out and the space is just a legit parking space for anyone with a road legal car for as long as they want to park there for. This is the problem with relying on on-street parking.