(Sorry I'll probably rant but I hate it when people get me all riled up...)
My Mum (who is 68) lives in a wee row of 1 bedroom houses - these were originally old people's houses but now also house young disabled people and one guy who has psych and drug issues. There are 7 houses.
There is some parking (for about 6 cars, only about 3 residents have cars) and a sign up with says "Parking Exclusively For The Use of Numbers 14 - 24A Cherry Tree Lane" and is signed Happytown City Council (well you know waht I mean...the actual street and town name are there).
No-one EVER pays any attention to this sign and the parking officials don't enforce it.
Today I'm driving up to my Mums, I go to park in one of these 6 spaces, and this woman cuts in and parks in the last space -= gets out her car and starts walking accross the road (away from the little houses). I wind down my window and ask her to move her car - the sign says its for residents and she doesn't live there. She agrees she doesn't live there (she lives at number 4), but she argued "I've lived there for a long time". Which I pointed out didn't actually matter. She responded that I didn't live there either, but I replied I was going to visit my elderly mother who does live there.
At that point I rolled up the window, didn;t respond to her any more, she moved the car but while she was turning, another space became free and she just drove into that one instead.
So, who was right - I think I have a right to park there as my Mum is a resident and I know if its only residents and visitors who use the sapces then there are enough. She thinks that because she has lived accross the road for a long time and has always parked there that she should be allowed to park there.
(As another aside, the woman accross in number 6 - again not one of these houses - rents out her house and has told the students who rent it that they can park in these spaces because "no-one minds and she always parked tehre herself when she lived in the house". 2 young students moved in, the house itself is literally about 300 yards from the university, so the 2 cars they brought with them are parked there all day every day and never move - if they took their cars to Uni they would probably end up parking further away).
Number 4 (the lady who I argued with today) parks in these spaces. As does her husband, and sometimes her daughter, and the 2 students accross the road...and my Mum often has to squeeze into the last space meaning only 1 resident is actually parked in these resident only spaces.
My Mum has spoken to the traffic wardens who do nothing, and she has written to the council who have passed her concerns onto the local councillor....and nothing has happened from there. As there are no permits, there is no way for residents to prove they live there and therefore nothing to prove to officials that these other cars don;t live there. My Mum would happily pay for a parking permit for those spaces IF they would actually be policed and these other local residents would stop parking there. After all, this woman at number 4 and the 2 students at number 6 see the sign every time they drive in and MUST feel something to know that every time they park there they shouldn't be parking there. (I can only think that was why the lady from number 4 was so defensive today when I challenged her, because she knows she shouldn't park there)
Sorry I've rambled on - but basically do I have a right to park there visiting my Mum who is a resident, or does she have a right to park there as she always has and no-one enforces the sign that is up.