Aibu to have reported the dustbin lorry to the council?

[Bumpyroads]

Bit of back story us and our next door neighbours quietly dislike each other. Nobody has really said anything but I know we both annoy each other from what is said about the street. They moan about us, things we do etc.

Recently they have been playing loud music in the garden at the weekends in a passive aggressive way. This started when they complained about our chickens being noisy ( we have rehomed the chickens because of this but thats another story) the reason I'm saying all of this is because in general I am just in a bad mood about our neighbours and don't know if this has tainted my reaction.

So next door neighbour is a bin man, he wasn't at work.
Bin lorry come and parks up across my drive . Workmen get out and go in neighbours house/garden for 40 minutes having a drink and break. All this time I was unable to get off or access my drive. There was a bin lorry parked unattended across it.

So husband rings to complain to the council. They were confused as on their tracker the lorry was supposedly elsewhere. They also agreed 40minutes was excessive but said they must have been emptying bins? No they were having a cuppa at my neighbours! Council are going to investigate, I suspect they were taking unauthorised breaks and turning the tracker off.. maybe.

Anyway the reason this has also annoyed me so much is our neighbours have lived hear 30+ years and act like they own the street. Complain about anything we do (leaves from our trees fall in their garden for example.) They are 60+ and set in their ways and we are a young family. Tbh I just dont think they like us, we normally don't rise to it and smile and wave etc. But this time I had had enough and complained.

Aibu? And have we just started ww3?

So not deliberately to annoy you then.

Nah op I don't blame you they seem like entitled cunts.
They kind of sound like our elderly neighbours actually, seem to think they own the street, always curtain twitching and gossiping but they can do whatever they like.
We tiptoed around them for 3 years until they started chatting shit about us, I gave it back (petty but satisfying) and they've backed off and idgaf now.. She doesn't knock our door anymore.
Irrelevant but anyway, yes if someone blocked my driveway for 40 minutes I would have also complained yanbu.

Their assumption was correct! You did know where they were.
You were being small minded, petty and spiteful and it will come back to bite you in the arse!

So if there had been an emergency, the OP shluld go and knock on the door of an antagonistic neighbour, just so she could leave her house?

I don’t get why you’ve posted on “am I being unreasonable” if you’re just going to argue against the majority who are telling you you are? why do you need other people’s opinions if you’re confident you’ve done the right thing?

If I was you I’d be crossing my fingers and toes next time you do something that irritates them, as you may find that results in your own workplace(es) getting a call. That’s exactly how these things escalate.

Yeah, that's the option isn't it? I had a Severn Trent van parked at the end of my drive for 2 hours the other evening. If I'd wanted to go out, I'd have had to find the workmen and ask them to shift. This is just something that happens from time to time, an everyday frustration. I don't have an axe to grind with anyone who works for Severn Trent luckily for them...

I think you may have started a bigger conflict, completely unnecessarily, with someone who lives right next door and already didn't like you.

Quite silly I think.

Almost the same as us. Been here five years. First few years trying to keep it civil now there really is no point they've done numerous to us now and i think im just really fed up. They are just so entitled because they have lived here so long. Thinking they can dictate what we can and cant do etc.

The majority - 67% by vote at the time of typing - say she's not being unreasonable, though.

No point being petty. You don’t like each other. Leave it at that. I wouldn’t have grassed up the bin men. They’re not the ones you’ve got the beef with.

Yeah, this struck me too. I’ll be 60 in a few months. Time to start pissing off the neighbours for no good reason, seeing as how I’m so stuck in my ways. Don’t want to disappoint them😆

The replies say differently as someone else has pointed out upthread

Well.said. There's a lot of hypocrisy from some, along with the pile on. The parking of the bin lorry seems deliberate and vindictive. Almost as if it was planned in advance.

@Bumpyroads has acknowledged she may have overreacted but given the drip, drip of passive aggressiveness from her neighbour she had probably finally reached her breaking point.
How many were in the bin crew OP? Glad to see that so many on here have no problem with a bin crew taking a 40 minute break during their working day. A break which was clearly not legit, given their depots response. An unscheduled break which was subsidised directly through the already very expensive council tax.

I'm sure you feel fed up and wanted to push back. But actually, would being direct rather than reporting him to the council for something which had no affect on you at all, have been a better move?

Once again I apologise if I offended anyone.

An apology is only sincere when you recognise you have offended someone. The word if suggests otherwise.

They can't do that. If a bin isn't collected, unless there's a valid reason the bin men have to come back the next working day to empty it. They do in my area anyway, I've had to report a missed bin collection.

Strangely, I have never had any trouble from elderly neighbours and now that I am over 70 I haven't started going round annoying people.

Tell us more please, ‘done numerous to us’ and ‘they can dictate what we can and can’t do’

But yes, I can’t see why what you’ve done will inconvenience your neighbours, it will inconvenience some hardworking refuse workers at a time when their physically demanding service they provide to you is hardest. Please come back and tell us how you bin emptying goes over coming weeks 😁

Are you a little hard of thinking? 😁

This is one of those perfect examples of the prudence of asking yourself, before you act, ‘do I want to be right or do I want to be happy?’

In other words do you want to be gleeful for 5 minutes or peaceful for the rest of your life? Lose the ego. Choose peace.

@Bumpyroads To be honest, my neighbour frequently parks across my drive when there is plenty of parking a few foot away and I don't see why I should have to go out and ask them to move simply because they couldn't be bothered to walk a few extra feet to park without issue. That was their choice and they have to accept the ramifications. I don't have to fair to them if they have already decided not to be fair to me.

So no, if Binmen chose to block the drive, that is their error and I get why you reported them. However I am also not naïve and they may take their bat and ball home,

Oh, and also on the ‘HOW VERY DARE THEY BLOCK MY DRIVE’ brigading, I assume they have to pause outside a house, blocking its drive, when they empty your bins? 😂. You seem a little unhinged OP…. What have your neighbours actually done for you to work up the energy for this?!

I've noticed an influx of posters who just want to stick the boot into an OP no matter what the situation is.

Well its not your neighbour that will be in trouble is it? It's the binmen.
Jeez, good luck with that. Given that they are out and running in 30 degree heat stopping for a breather, sanctioned or not is hardly worth dobbing them in. Especially as it didn't impact you at all

Love this, YES.

“Lose the ego. Choose Peace”

🕊️✌️

Yes, but I wouldn't want a bin lorry parked across my drive for 40 minutes, mainly due to the smell.