Its a parking one

[DeathStare]

I live on a street with victorian terraced houses. It's not a main road and is very narrow, so parking is often a nightmare. There is no other parking nearby (we're off a main road with double yellow lines)

My neighbour (next door but one) has started parking one car on their paved front garden. It has no lowered kerb, no white line, nothing official saying nobody can park in front of it.

I came home earlier - with toddler and shopping - and there was no other parking space that would fit my car. So I parked outside their house blocking their car in.

They just came and asked me to move it so they can get the car out - which is fair enough and exactly what i expected. So I went straight out to move the car (with the toddler).

I pulled my car backwards so they could get out, then pulled forward into the same space to park there again. The neighbour pulled up next to me and said I'd have to move it again when he comes back so that he can park there again and basically told me to park somewhere else.

I said no. Im happy to move it if they need to get out but im not leaving a perfectly legal parking space (and then driving round the local area trying to find another one, in the rain with a toddler) when its not an official driveway and Im not moving it again so they can park there again.

Neighbour was really not happy and I half expect him to come and demand i move it when he gets back. AIBU?

Unless you have a dropped kerb then you are not supposed to drive over it. When they drop the kerb they also strengthen the pavement so a car can drive over it.

No he hadn't hit my car. If he had the damage would have been on the front of his car.

I never park if there's another space. We have other neighbours who like to park outside their houses if they can for various reasons.

However there often isn't much choice. We live on a small terraced street not designed for parking and most households have at least one car if not more.

There is a main road with no parking round the corner and other nearby streets are mainly residents only parking. There is a huge school on the main road and sixth formers often park on our road. There is also a business across the road whose employees often park here. As well as that, 5 minutes walk down the main road is a major local sports venue (with limited parking). Plus we are 5 minutes walk from a local public transport link to premiership football ground (imagine we are one tube stop from the Emirates - similar to that).

So parking is a nightmare. If I hadn't parked in that space I'd have probably been driving round for 15 minutes snd ended up parking on residents only street 10 minutes walk away (with a toddler, shopping and no pram) in the rain, and then have had to have walked back to my car two hours later (with toddler in the rain) to go and move the car and begin hunting for another space.

The only other space on our road at that time was (ironically) right outside my house (so better for me!) but there is no way in hell my car would have fit in it. His car, on the other hand would easily have fit in it, but for some reason he wouldn't park there - just kept telling me to even though mine clearly wouldn't fit.

Also if I hasn't parked there, somebody else would have. It doesn't look like a driveway (because it isn't) and there is mo lowered kerb and no road markings or sign indicating not to park there. When the car isn't parked there (like it wasn't when he came hammering) it looks like any other spot on the road. Other people park there all the time when his car isn't there (and sometimes when it is).

Horrible. Hopefully he has had some communication now that shows him he doesn't own that bit of road.

I'm really shocked the police have the resources to flyer a whole street when they don't have the resources to investigate serious crimes. All for one shouty man.

Yes. It's almost impossible to believe isn't it?

Years ago when I was doing market research type stuff as a sideline, I had an appointment at an address on a small terraced street area with no off-road parking. It was crammed with cars parked up here and there. But! Oh! Hello! There's a perfectly legal parking space just three doors down from my appointment in which my car will fit perfectly! The Gods are smiling on me!

Happily parked up and knocked on the door of the interviewee, I was welcomed in and we sat and chatted through the questions. About half-way through I hear a continuous car beeping noise like someone was really angry. I mentioned it to my interviewee and asked what the beeping was all about. I was told quite nonchalantly "oh, maybe someone's parked on someone's space..."

Something niggled in my brain briefly but I thought nothing more of it until I left the house, got back to my car and as soon as I got into it, there was a VERY irate man banging on the window demanding to know why I parked there when it was HIS space!

I told him not to worry, I'm not ever going darken his road again, engaged gears and drove off! I really felt for those residents on that street though who had to deal with such a dick...

Yeah it surprised me as well. I'd have also thought it would be quicker to just go and talk to him than flyer 30 houses. I've not had a flyer yet so I suspect it may never happen. I asked him if they have flyers that specifically cover this situation and he said they had lots of different flyers and he'd go and have a look (i suspect the answer is no!)

Thinking about it, I've seen the police flyer cars sometimes on matchdays about considerate parking (put it under the windscreen wipers) but never on our street. So maybe he was just thinking of using some of those flyers (in which case the point will be lost on my neighbour who believes he's done nothing wrong).

I'll update if we ever actually get a flyer but I bet we don't 🤣