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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to want to park my car outside someone else's house all day for free?

186 replies

ferndalee · 05/10/2009 17:44

Really annoyed as council has decided to implement a residents parking zone round all the streets near our station. Apparently residents have complained about commuters parking in 'their' street all day for free instead of using the station car park. But the station car park is quite expensive and you have to get there really in the morning to guarantee a parking space.

I really don't understand why residents are annoyed people like me park outside their house during the day? It's not as if we're parked in their front garden or causing a nuisance. I understand that residents probably get annoyed that they might not be able to park their own cars because of commuters but shouldn't they have thought of this before they bough their house? Its a bit like people who live near schools complaining about people parking in their roads for the school pick-up.

The language the council has used in their leaflets is inflammatory as well, they talk about commuters 'dumping their cars for free all day' in these residential streets. This is rubbish as the highways agency own the road not the residents! They have no right to complain!

OP posts:
StewieGriffinsMom · 05/10/2009 17:46

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thesouthsbelle · 05/10/2009 17:48

too bloody right it is. i'm sorry but my parents live with the station on the end of their road.

do you know how infuriating it is to not be able to park outside your own front door cos someone like you has parked there from 7.30 am?? or to not be able to get your car onto your own drive & back out agian cos you can't see what's coming down the road cos the road is so jammed with people for the station parking.

I'm sorry but you are v v v unreasonable. What gives you the right to think you can park there and the residents can't??

(oh and btw they've lived in this house for the last 27 years, it wasn't this bad to start with - maybe you should think of that?)

Original poster
ferndalee · 05/10/2009 17:48

But I can't walk or cycle (live too far away) and there are no buses. Space in the car park is expensive and limited, what else am I supposed to do?

OP posts:
famishedass · 05/10/2009 17:49

get a job closer to home? Car share?

Lonicera · 05/10/2009 17:50

Perhaps the council are more concerned about making money as they will charge for the residents permits and you will now have to pay to park in the car park.

That's a win win situation for the council

sarah293 · 05/10/2009 17:51

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ElectricElephant · 05/10/2009 17:51

YABU

StewieGriffinsMom · 05/10/2009 17:53

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MovingOutOfBlighty · 05/10/2009 17:53

OMG YABU.

I would never want to live next to a station for this reason.
Surely if this is what the residents (who live there, rather than just be a car park) want this then their wishes should be paramount.

MillyR · 05/10/2009 17:55

We can't all live in isolated rural locations at the end of a dirt track. People have to live in places that car drivers will drive through.

I wish car drivers would drive through places, and choose parking spaces, with the idea in mind that they are visitors to where someone else lives. The road is part of the street, part of the home life of those people. Unless you live with some kind of mindset that nobody crosses a road to talk to a neighbour or visit a shop, and that the houses are actually just some kind of scenery to a formula one race track and pitstop area.

Maybe you should have considered, before you moved to your house, that there was no public transport. As you didn't, you will now have to pay for parking.

LynetteScavo · 05/10/2009 17:56

YABU

Teh people who live in the houses near the station probably do so

a)because they want easy access to the station,w ith out having to pay for parking. or
b) can't afford to rent or buy anywhere else.

And I doubt this has anything to do with residents complaining about people parking in their street. I bet you anything they will have to pay for a parking permit to park in their own street.

mazzystartled · 05/10/2009 17:56

YANBU to park wherever you can, so long as you are not inconveniencing others.

If the council have agreed to implement residents parking, it must be a big problem, especially if, as you intimate, they can't park their own cars on the street where they live.

So, it seems YAindeed BU.

Park further away, considerately.

MovingOutOfBlighty · 05/10/2009 17:57

Lynette has a good point - if the residents are prepared to pay for their permits then it really shows how much of a problem this is.

pinkmagic1 · 05/10/2009 17:58

Agree, park further away and walk. Would you like it if your street/road was full of cars belonging to people who didn't live there making it difficult to park near your home? I think not.

Original poster
ferndalee · 05/10/2009 17:58

But I don't see why I should have to pay for parking. I always manage to get a space in a street nearby and see lots of other commuters parking their cars for the day too. As I said before, the road is a public road and does not belong to the people who happen to have houses on that road. Just as for e.g a postbox is not for the exclusive use of people living near the postbox, anyone can post a letter?

OP posts:
pigletmania · 05/10/2009 17:59

YABU how would you like it if people did the same thing to you. You sound quite selfish and self centred to tell you the truth, why should people think about communters when they buy their house, its not YOUR STREET .

dairymoo · 05/10/2009 18:00

YABU. They are about to put restrictions on my road and I am really pleased as after a year of not minding when people 'dumped their cars all day', I am now getting increasingly frustrated with people that park across my driveway meaning that I can't get out of the house with my DCs in the morning. We will have to pay for the bays as well, but even so, I'm still glad.

My DH just factors the cost of parking (which is hideously expensive) into his travel budget for the year. Oh and he shares a lift with a neighbour too, which makes it that little bit cheaper.

wicked · 05/10/2009 18:01

If there are no restrictions on parking, and you have paid your road tax, I don't see the problem.

I usually forego the station car park and park for free in a residential street. However, there is no parking before 10am so that prevents commuters from doing this.

If I have to go into London before 10am, I walk to the station.

pigletmania · 05/10/2009 18:02

Yes you should have to pay for parking its part of your communte.

thesouthsbelle · 05/10/2009 18:02

'But I don't see why I should have to pay for parking.'

Right with that logic it's unbeleiveable - you should factor it into your budget - I don't see why I should (or indeed the elderly neighbours around my parents house) should have to park the other end of the street cos they can't park outside their houses cos of people like you - the might not have a right to park outside their own home but you don't have the right to park there either - on balance they have more right than you do.

What makes you think you deserve the right to park there?

OrmIrian · 05/10/2009 18:02

We are getting a residents parking zone soon and I can't wait. Even if I have to pay it will be better than having people who don't need to park there taking up all the spaces.

And if they all think like you then I won't even feel guilty about it

But you are a troll. You must be. Bad guys aren't normally quite so satisfyingly unreasonable in RL.

PoppyIsApain · 05/10/2009 18:02

YABU very much so, think if the occupiers of the house had been shopping and got loads of heavy bags, would you really expect them to be happy walking 1/2 a mile up the street, its called common courtesy! And what about the elderly when they have been out, i live in a street where i have alot of selfish neighbours and that drives me mad let alone if it was someone who doesnt even live in the street

MovingOutOfBlighty · 05/10/2009 18:02

ferndalee - it sounds as if very soon the road will 'belong' to the residents who live there. And I am pretty sure they will be thrilled when 'lots of other commuters' aren't using their streets as a car park.

motheringfrights · 05/10/2009 18:03

Ferndalee, you should have thought of all this before you decided to live so far from the station.

At least, according to your reasoning you should.

JackBauWooohooohoowaaer · 05/10/2009 18:03

I don't live near a station but there is a garage at the end of our road. We live on a corner.
Every night they dump 3 or 4 cars outside our house on the road. Yes, they are entitled to do this but by leaving them there all day the residents can't get in and out of their hosues without parking miles away from the front door.
Out of 5 houses 4 have small children with SAHM's so it woudl be nice if we could empty shopping without people outside our house.
Don't be a tit.