AIBU to park my van on the road?

[Vantopark]

My family and I live in a quiet village. DH and I have 2 cars between us which we park on the driveway. DH also has a separate work van which can’t fit on the drive, so he parks it down the road. He can’t park it directly outside our house because the road is narrow at this point and it would cause an obstruction. So he parks it legally on the road a bit further down where the road widens. It is not parked directly outside anyone’s house as there are no houses there, but it can be seen from some people’s windows at a distance. The parking is not at a premium, and there is always plenty of space left for other people to park there should they wish.

The other villagers seem to hate this. Their objection is based purely on the fact that they don’t like the look of it (it is sign-written). Not that it is obstruction anyone or using up valuable parking spaces (because it isn’t). They don’t have any objection to the other cars that are parked there. We’ve been asked repeatedly to move it, but as we haven’t obliged they are starting to get more aggressive, stopping me in the street to call me a ‘fucking selfish bitch’ etc. There are things I can see out of my windows that I would rather weren’t there, but I think that’s just village life isn’t it? There isn’t anywhere else that we can park the van in the village, anywhere else would be even closer to people’s houses.

YABU: yes you are a selfish bitch and the van shouldn’t be there

YANBU: You are legally entitled to park the van there, crack on and the neighbours need to get over it.

Your village sounds like one of those horror films with a bunch of inbred yokals who go about punishing "city" people for daring to invade their precious territory

I have an opposite neighbour with more vehicles than they have space for on their drive. She came over once to ask if she could use my drive (which has locked gates).
I told her that If I decided to rent out my drive I would let her know which app to use but it would be at commercial rates. She quickly backtracked.

Squarebob

So this is a big van? Where does it end? Is it OK if a HGV driver who lives in the village routinely parks up there overnight? What about a dozen of them?

Not relevant, there aren’t a dozen HGV drivers and their HGVs living on OP’s street.

OP each me every single one of your irate neighbours needs to get a life! I cannot imagine being the slightest bit bothered by such bloody nonsense and I’m chuckling at all pro neighbour comments.

Tell them to take up cross stitch or learn an instrument instead of moaning about a van parked nowhere near their homes 🤣🤣🤣

WOW! With this sort of attitude to hard working people parking their work vehicle in a spot which doesn't cause any difficulty to anyone, it's no wonder people like us who own motorhomes get some stick.

What is the matter with people?

Why can't you just live and let live?

If the OP's DH wasn't working, and was claiming benefits, I guess those of you who object to seeing a sign written van in 'YOUR' road, would also have a thing or two to say about that as well.

People are happy enough to have tradespeople arrive in their work vans when they want a job doing, but then moan about those same vans being parked in residential areas at the end of the day. How hypocritical is that?

@FaintingGoats I agree it could be because they are outsiders. I grew up in a beautiful place, thatched cottages abounded. Everyone knew everyone. It really was like Hot Fuzz, in the film when they catch the shoplifter and he says something like ‘that’s our Jackie’s husband’s cousins boy’ I roared with laughter, the greater good! Outsiders are still despised. Houses are incredibly expensive.

Anyone who calls you names swears at you and harasses you report to the police!’
no need for it!!

Just tell them to fuck off you’re not interested I’m their vile shit and walk off

As long as a taxed, insured has a valid MOT and is parked legally there is nothing anyone can do about it.

dh has had a few complaints about his work van, our drive isn’t big enough for it so he parks it in a parking bay across from our house and a neighbour has complained before, we ignored it and he still parks it there, he has to earn a living, his work don’t have a base.

my neighbour has 2 work vans, numerous equipment and his drive is a mess, but no one complains to him about that.

Neighbours defintely should not be speaking to you like that! Sounds like harrassment.
If its right outside someones house/windows then although youd be legally parked i would understand why they are upset.
If its against a wall/no windows and can only be seen by at a distance then DH parked it very considerately.
Can we have a diagram?!
I think the only thing he could do is to rotate where he parks it, IF there are other spots where it wouldnt cause an issue. Defintely dont park it outside someones windows thou or opposite or too close to a drive. There a van in our village that parks outside an elderly neighbours bungalow windows i think its really selfish.
Vans can be unsightly but it does sound like DH us doing everything he can to park considerately.

It isn't outside anyone's window, if you read what the OP has written. It would be a non issue, even if it were.

Why have you got two cars?
Has your husband got an employer or is he self employed? We have a friend who works for a national company, one phone call about their parking and they have to leave it at the yard 😣

Also, you’re lucky it doesn’t get broken into parked a distance from your home 😉

Vans are unpleasant to look at though. There's someone who parks their large van in view of my DD's window. Not directly opposite, but still an eyesore. Obviously my DD doesn't do anything about it, because it's parked legally. But it does take a lot away from her outlook

It wouldn't bother you, because it's your van. But not being directly opposite doesn't make it unreasonable for those nearby to find it annoying.

Obviously there's absolutely no excuse for anyone to accost you about it, though.

Could he leave the van at work? He has a car as well so it's not his only form of transport. If people are so anti I would be worried someone will let his tyres down or worse.

I so agree with this.
There is one near me which is a ‘Snap On tools’ van which I think is a franchise - the van is the size of a bus/large camper van and has no business being parked in a residential street.
Your neighbours are very rude though - that’s also not acceptable.

Why are vans parked on a street unpleasant to look at? What specifically is so offensive? The size of them? The colour?

Sheesh.

Yes, this very much. Public roads aren't designed to be beautiful to look at; they're a functional facility designed for vehicles to travel along and often to be stored at the side of. Why would anybody be of the persuasion that they should be pretty?

It's like going into a Tesco Extra and complaining because it's just a great big ugly warehouse-style building, with no attractive interior design touches at all, no shimmering ponds filled with koi carp, no breathtaking spring landscape, no benches to sit down all day and take in the glory of it all - just rows and rows of utilitarian shelves piled high, fridges and freezers and checkouts.

It's baffling why on earth anybody would somehow think that the public highway is there for their visual delight to sit and gaze at in wonder all day! Sit in your garden if you have one; go to the park; join the National Trust!

You own more vehicles than you have parking for.
Either arrange appropriate business parking or move to a property with the appropriate parking bays.

A nice village? Doesn't sound that nice to me if the neighbours are swearing at her!

If anyone spoke to me like that, there's no way I'd be doing what they wanted, why should I? If they asked nicely, that's another matter, I'd probably try and find a solution.

The op and her husband are not breaking the law, the neighbours on the other hand are, by verbally abusing her.

Loads of people don't have any off-road parking at all. Would you tell them that they simply shouldn't be allowed to own a car? Maybe, if they do, they could be expected to park their car in a yard or compound elsewhere and 'just' get the bus to collect it whenever they need to use it?

Residential roads are designed for two key purposes: for vehicles to travel along and to be stored at the side when not in use. Yes, in an ideal world, everybody would have a massive multi-vehicle drive, so that nobody ever needed to park on the road and they would be free and unimpeded for traffic. But in the normal, real world...

A nice village? Doesn't sound that nice to me if the neighbours are swearing at her!

Yes, it's like the places where demanding, gossipy busybodies expect to be able to dictate how they believe everybody should live ostensibly 'to keep the street/village nice for everybody'... and in so doing, they singlehandedly spoil an otherwise lovely place to live.

Give me strength!

"I wouldn't want to look at a van."

What a way to live!

When we bought our house, 30 years ago, there was a covenant in the deeds which said that no commercial vehicles coukd be parked on driveways. It didn't, however, say anything about them being parked on the road - because it couldn't. It's a public highway. Noone took any notice anyway, and vehicles are parked all over the place now. There's far more cars and vans here than there ever was 10 years ago.

My old neighbours moaned about me parking my van on my drive for an extended period over Christmas years ago. It was a week. He was gleeful when asking if work was bad, as I'd not moved it for 'weeks', and would I be selling it for the money. He even suggested that I park it on the other side, as the wall I was parking next to - think 4 courses high my side and about 8 his side, was not designed for all the weight of a van- I was parked a foot away from it, and my van probably weighed the same as my 4x4.

the sod used to bring his car out of the garage park on the road, slightly over my dropped kerb to make it hard to get off the drive. Our road was just wide enough for a car and a half, so swinging a left would have been a pain anyway. God i don't miss him.

Some folk are just batshit crazy about parking.

as long as you are parked legally you are doing nothing wrong

however if they are verbally abusing you they are doing something wrong and you’d be well within your rights to report them to the police