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!

@peachy - i expect it varies greatly from council to council as with most things...there are quite a few marked spaces where i live. yours have obviously been twats in not heeding your request.

i think you can support marked out disabled spaces and be sceptical about residents schemes without contradiction though - it is a differnt issue.

orm -if people are in rural areas it's also very different. it would be do-able as a 3-month experiment but very much more difficult than for people in urban areas (I have lived in both, very recently). where I live there's one bus an hour (with a couple of gaps mid-afternoon). the GP is about 3 miles away, ditto the dentist, supermarket about 5 miles and no children's activities in the village. also extremely hilly so cycling very difficult...you get the picture...

so do you drive from your home a short way to park outside someone elses home so you can catch the train? How far is it from your house to the station? Are there really no buses? Can't you walk to one?

Agreed hatwoman. My parents are miles away from anywhere and they'd find it difficult. But perhaps we need to face the hard truth that living in the back of beyond isn't going to be tenable forever. Horrible thought I know - especially as my dream is to live on top of a hill surrounded by nothing but clouds

OP - how far away is 'miles away'?

Or alternatively accept that you have to do without some of the things that towns provide. Or, even more radically, if no-one had cars the bus companies might start to restore servcices

We live by a hairdresser and frankly part of the reason we are moving is because people park for free outside all day. Very frustrating - imagine yourself with your DC and lots of shopping and not being able to park anywhere near where you live. What do you do - leave DC in car whilst unloading, leave DC in house whilst unloading. Personally think you are being very unreasonable about this. The highways agency may own the road but the council in general maintain it. Parking permits for residents are the way forward and if they want to pay for it then you will have to walk or you will have to pay the car park at the station. We used to have more of a problem with the local Post Office workers parking all day and there was never any parking for us, permits have sorted the majority of this because of the way they are done (several hours you can't park outside for in the middle of the day) but this still doesn't stop visitors from parking right outside our house for the rest of the hours. Yes it may be our fault for living close to a hairdresser BUT it is still a nuisance. You should think of the residents and their needs to. If someone parked outside your house so you couldn't do so you would be moaning about that to. Pay for your parking or find some other means of transport.

Doodley- so you'd be stuffed if you worked nights then? Wow

I work evenings and frequently am stuffed as have to use car for work! However not for much longer as moving to house with its own parking - wehey. Didn't mean to get on my high horse about it but it can be the ultimate in frustration if you have a baby in the car! Without her I don't mind but still after long working hours you don't then want to walk past some dodgie area to get home as female alone!

Living in a road with a station at the end I can't help feeling YABU. We now have restrictive parking as prior to this I couldn't actually park anywhere near my house and it is a long road. It is not fun unloading babies and shopping a fair distance from your home so I am glad for the parking restrictions on my road. I still have to put up with the idiots who park on double yellow lines whilst waiting for their DHs to return from work (usually women who then move to the passenger seat so DH can drive home ). I have taken to beeping them as it is really dangerous to do this in my road and the double yellow lines are there for a reason .