Some of you may recall my earlier post in AIBU about my neighbour blocking the shared dropped kerb outside our adjoining drives with a wheelie bin to stop me driving over "her" half of the dropped kerb. That was resolved when my neighbour realised I was taking photos each day.
Since then, we have built our rear extension to make the house suitable for my wheelchair bound husband, including relaying the drive to make it a lesser slope for the wheelchair. My neighbour objected after the build was finished to the raised height of our rear patio and access path along her fence but the planning department ruled in our favour - our architect dealt with it for free on our behalf. Our builders had several "conversations" with her re parking, not leaning tools against "her" fence etc and she always "supervised" the man who came each week to pump out the Portaloo.
I avoid speaking to her and have found that several other neighbours also take this path.
While the house has improved, my husband's health has deteriorated as might be expected with Lewy Body Dementia and he now has two carers, three times a day, to dress, undress and change his Tena pad as it is not safe for one person to move him. He also goes to daycare twice a week and has recently started being transported by the centre's bus which has a tail lift for wheelchair access. The bus needs to park so that the tail lift is next to the shared dropped kerb. My neighbour does not drive but her son, who shares her house, has two cars, using one for work and the other for weekends. For the last three weeks, the "weekend" car has been parked (legally) outside their house, only on daycentre days, so that the bus cannot park there with the tail lift next to the dropped kerb. This is OK sometimes - the bus turns round and parks outside our house. At other times, parking outside my other neighbour's house, or ours, prevents the bus being able to park at all and it has to park several houses down the street, taking longer to load/unload my husband.
The parked car does not affect my access and, as it only happens twice each week on daycentre days, is clearly aimed at stopping the bus from parking for 5-10 minutes, twice each day, outside her house. The drivers have commented on it and I have explained about my difficult neighbour but I would like any suggestions you may have about how to stop my neighbours from parking, for no purpose, on daycentre days. The son must be in agreement with his mother to park the car outside as it means manoeuvring two cars morning and evening.
The parked car causes minor inconvenience to traffic, including buses and ambulances as we are on a route to the nearest hospital, and increases exhaust fumes from cars waiting to overtake.
I would like my neighbours to cease parking their spare car on the road but I don't know how to do this.
Is it harassment of a disabled person?
Is it, therefore, a "hate" crime?
Would the police and/or council be able to help?
Or should I just ignore it as it affects the bus, but not my access to my drive. It is likely to be temporary as my husband will, inevitably, move to a care home at some stage.
(As a side issue, I will not be able to move once we reach the care home stage as social services would then be able to take half the sale proceeds towards the care home fees. She has lived next door for about 30 years so I guess we are stuck with each other).
