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

[ferndalee]

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!

So why don't you drive to work then? After all the replies from people saying how pissed off they are at the likes of you, you still think it's ok and wouldn't give it a second though?

You're selfish, arrogant and lazy and I really hope they build a shopping centre or a bus garage at the end of your road then you can see how it feels.

well said bloodshot

Of the "joke" threads in the last few days my favourite was the pomade (no, that's some sort of hair product - I mean the orange stuck with cloves thingy ) on public transport (very very funny).

Next the birthing video at a christening (made me giggle lots).

This is a very poor third because it just isn't funny.

Please try harder next time op.

YABU.

You most probably are parking in our street. We live very close to the station which has a lovely empty car park but the lazy commuters don't use it because they are too tight to pay the £3.00 per day parking charge. Instead they park outside our house, and to add insult to injury we also live near the centre of town so the commuters come off the train enjoy themselves in the pubs and restaurants before heading home at 10.00 p.m. Dh comes home from work around 8.00 p.m and has nowhere to park. Sometimes it is so bad that he has to go and park in a pay and display car park. If we ever want to go shopping we have to unload the bags whilst the car is in the middle of road as we can never get near our house, usually we are tooted by one of the commuters on their way home.

The other day I was mighty pissed off by a commuter as she was parked outside my front door (fair enough, no restrictions at the moment) but had chosen to lean on my windowsill whilst she had a conversation on her mobile, I thought when she saw me put my key in the front door she would have the decency to move but she didn't, I went into my house smiled at her through the window, she still didn't take the hint so I had to go back out and ask her to move. She replied "I'm trying to have a conference call and you don't own the bloody street" I said "no but we own the bloody house you are lounging on!"

We have been campaigning for years for residents parking only.

good luck thedollshouse. i hope you get it soon.

OP YABU - unfortunately there are more cars than the space available can cope with, you should expect to pay.

BUT - people without dedicated private parking spaces or residents' parking who expect other people not to park there, YABU too (yes, I know you didn't ask my opinion! ) - you don't have a greater right to park in the street than anyone else. Not even morally. If it's that important, you need to live somewhere with dedicated parking - in other words, you should expect to pay too.

I used to live in the city centre, I had a car because travelling was part of my job (as opposed to commuting), and I almost never could park anywhere near my flat, anytime of day or night. Think a 15-minute walk. But I didn't blame the people who were parked there, commuters or residents.

The only people I think are really hard done by are the people who have driveways which get obstructed. That is really not on. I would call the police or the anti social behaviour people. I was gobsmacked at the audacity of the man who parked in someone else's driveway! My parents have a driveway, and they don't even like people using it to turn - so they keep the gate shut. It's a pest but that's what they have to do.

As for the rest of it - well, after DCs came along we live somewhere else, no car. Much easier anyway to shop by pram, children always appropriately dressed for weather (which is hard to achieve if you are taking them by car), under restraint and everyone and everything kept together till you get to the front door. OK you can't do a weekly supermarket shop like that, but it was fine for our purposes. Now they are older I have a bike and trailer, and it's the same. I don't need to rely on the selflessness of car-drivers ( as if) to get to my front door.

We are about 2 miles from the town centre (nursery and school are in that direction too; so is my work now - different job - pays less but chosen for location as much as anything else). There is no bus service for getting around town, but we can get a bus (about a mile away from the house) to go further afield. We hire a car once in a blue moon. Believe me, it makes you think very carefully about what you "need" to do.

So - in my view if you absolutely need to rely on a car, you should live somewhere that accommodates that need. Personally I have found doing without is brilliant.

I honestly can't believe someone can be so selfish -you must be a troll.

And if you aren't, stop being such a tight wad and pay to park your car or move closer to the station.

I grew up living on a commuter estate. The cars would all park at the bottom of the estate making it very dangerous to drive there, it was a nightmare.

Years later they put a single yellow line on every road on the estate (when they tried it just at the bottom they just parked further up!) You cannot park there between 11am and 12. This means that you cannot park there all day but the residents can still use it in the evenings. It works really well, especially as the station has now doubled the size of it's carpark by putting another level on it.

i remember years ago when working as a nanny in london,family nearby used to put an old sofa on the road to save their space. it was hilarious. but it seemed to work!!

obviously,not a great idea to do it,but was a solution for them at that time

ILoveTIFFANY- LOL might try that!!!

We live a 10min walk from town centre and our road is always rammed with lazy tight shoppers cars!!!

It drives me mad!

We only have one very small car and theres isnt a chance in hell of parking should we dare move it on market days or weekends, We even had one cheeky women tap on the door and say i heard youve got children, you dont have a buggy wheel pump i could borrow do you, i calmly told that it wasnt town parking outside but the carpark for town has a halfords who would be happy to help and shut the door, she tapped again, i ignored before i screamed!

oh and OP YAB VERY VERY U!!!

Golly, everything to do with cars and driving seems to make people so cross. Why the hell do so many of us have the dratted things?

Why is it that people always just say do without a car?

We can't.In fact, two cars; no station here and Dh needs to head one way (for which urpose we bought a smart car) and I need to head the toerh regualrly for appointments at ds3's SN school, hospital appts etc. Plus shopping, just none here bar Spar- 2 miles OK, 7 miles not so great IMO. Plus all our family are miles away and do not drive, we'd genuinely never see them, public transport an impossibility with the boys and they just woudln't bother tbh.

I disgaree that we don't have a moral 'right' (right toos trong a word); I think it's something that I would do for sure to try and dinf somewhere that would cause minimal inconvenience for anyone.

Our road is a narrow one way street, I am heartily sick of being sworn at by people trying to get apst becuase someone elses car is parked outside, or (and yes I know its nobodies fault) having ds1 (ASD) crying ebcuase he doesn't recognise the car outside his bedrrom Move? Can't afford it.

But you know what?Even the toehr day with door-block man damaging someone elses property wuld never occur to me. Being a bit pissed off and huffing one thing, damaging peoples property another entiely.

All it suually takes is a bit of manners usually. Parking outside someones home when there's not option = liofe, when there's car park = a bit mean. You don't know the circumstances of the person in the home.

cruella - "you don't have a greater right to park in the street than anyone else" Well they do now! They have a residents parking zone. Sod morally, they do legally.

I don't know edam but it does make for hysterical reading when you don't have one.

Which is funny really, cause I am a Mosman Mummy in Australia (Mosman/Chelsea are the same thing ) and drive an urban assault vehicle. Here I just get to grin at the parking inspectors and enjoy other's road rage whilst stepping onto the bus.

People are crazy when it comes to cars.

My grand and completely impractical plan is that everyone should be forced to be without a car for 3 months. Just to see if/how they could cope. Truth is that most of us could manage OK - our family could TBH as long as we did without all the leisure uses we put our car too - and if we couldn't we'd need to change our lifestyles.

It wouldn't be easy but there is going to come a point when car ownership is going to be so expensive, so inconvenient, so anti-social, the roads so congested, that we need to perhaps be forced to try drastic measures.

DISCLAIMER: I exclude anyone with mobility problems or very small children from that.

Yes, you'd be excluded peachy. In fact I was thinking about you when I added the disclaimer

I think I am probably talking about people who think they can't get from A - B without a car, but the reality being that they could but it's not quite as easy. (including me sometimes ).

Of course YABU, and I think we'll all be looking out for the 'Parking Wars' article in a Saturday paper this weekend too.

I am one of those who live very close to a school and detest people parking outside my house. Espc when there is a massive, free carpark behind us. It is lazy and selfish and rude. It is even worse when sub teachers park out, all day! Stop being so tightfisted and pay the carpark fee.

i thought if you have a disabled family member you are entitled to your own disabled parking space marked out in front of your house?

not everyone works 8-6 - but enough people do to make that the core times for commuter parking (unless to london, where from here that would be more like 7am - 7pm) and times when residential areas are quite empty.

People seem to be confusing bad parking with commuter parking. parking in front of someones drive is bad, up the drive is asking for trouble....regadless of where the driver lives.

not all residents parking scheme issue visitor permits - brighton you got a book of 20 for £20 - so difficult if someone wanted to visit every saturday.

"attila why did you get on your high horse about the tyre comment, i think its a bloody good idea, would serve some ignorant buggers right then they might think again".

High horse?. Sigh.

I think not, taking such inflammatory action would make a bad situation worse. Doing such things brings unwarranted attention to the homeowner and the person whose car it is would likely take action against you in some manner. People cannot blithely go around damaging other peoples' cars because they've parked outside their house for the day and do so on a daily basis. Its criminal damage!!.

'i thought if you have a disabled family member you are entitled to your own disabled parking space marked out in front of your house?' rofl at that

my two have asd, one in an snu atm, one gets hr (high rate care) and one middle r care but getting mobility is like gold dust if you have asd (we get at lr, you need hr for blue badge- there is no cumulative effect of +disabilties (though its obviously harder to cope with 2, isn;t it?) and our council does not 'consider psychologiocal disability as a disability in relation to parking'

A parking space or blue badge would make a big difference, it won't happen though

The DLA and and medical people know I am housebound on most days without a second adult but it would seem that isn't there problem. It is the remit of SSD who summed it up with 'Mrs P choosess not to take all 4 out together as to avoid the stress'. Er no, last time I tried it ds3 tried to run under a car.

OrmIrian, re legal/moral parking, we don't disagree (if you read my post again).

And I like your "do w/o a car for 3 months" plan!

When I moved out here and gave up my car, people at my old work ran a book on how long I'd last ("I give it six weeks" was a typical comment). Well, eleven years on we are doing OK! (Apart from the surfing lessons obviously.)