Parking

I get fed up with people who take the attitude the road outside their house "belongs" to them. If it's legal to park there, and the vehicle in question is legally on the road, anyone is entitled to park. I did once challenge someone if they ever parked outside a house not belonging to them. The answer I got was only ever outside the houses of friends or family and it was always "their" bit of the road. No I didn't believe it either and told them so

Mollygo if you’re not blocking access to their property or disregarding and notices about “residents only” parking then you are perfectly within your rights to park. This self righteous pair don’t own the road outside their house.

I remember when I was at work one day and two women, bit Hyacinth Bucket, were complaining about people parking outside their houses and how awful it was. I looked out of the window and could clearly see the one woman's car parked on the opposite side of the road outside someone's house.

She got very sniffy when I pointed it out and she gave a very long and jumbled explanation of why that was OK, I think it was to do with living on a busy road, living opposite offices and anyway it was a council house.

I was a teenager and basically ended up being told to mind my own business.

I agree that it’s perfectly acceptable and legal to park on any bit of road where it’s legally allowed, including outside other people’s houses. However I do not agree that lorries should be allowed to park in residential areas, often with part of the lorry on the pavement because the road itself is narrow. Last week I saw a situation like this where a large vehicle couldn’t get through due to two lorries parked on a fairly narrow residential road. I was behind the large vehicle. We both had to reverse down the narrow road with cars parked on both sides in order to eventually turn around and use a different route. What if it had been a fire engine that was unable to get through?

I agree maddyone about lorries being parked in residential roads, other than when they are doing a delivery. It used to be that years ago you didn't see commercial vehicles parked on residential streets, they were housed at the company parking areas. Now the workers seem to bring them home. Just a road away from me there have been 4 DPD vans parked in a line, and when they are grouped like that it makes it quite difficult to see past them for making the turn. Luckily it's a minor road turning into another minor road, otherwise it would be a more dangerous exercise.

DH was only away 15 minutes so I’m not blocking the view any more.
Lorries do seem to go home with workers now. We have two coaches-parked on a bend in the road which makes it difficult to get past but they’re not directly outside anyone’s house.

Roads and pavements are nearly always the responsibility of the council and are not owned by the people who live on that road.

I once parked my car on a side street where I was not blocking anyone's access. When I returned to my car it had been deliberately blocked in and a note on my windscreen saying "Park in your own street".

I really dislike how others upset others with their made up rules, especially around parking

You are allowed to park outside anyone's property providing you do not block access, but I do feel sorry for people who live near hospitals, surgeries, football grounds, schools and shops as they never have space available in front of their own house.
Lack of adequate parking facilities, which planners refuse to take into account when building.
This is why so many people concrete over their drives because they have nowhere else to park.

This is a big problem when you live near to an airport and people can park outside your house for 1 or 2 weeks. They don't want to pay for airport parking but will spend a lot of money on their holiday.

No one parks outside my house for very long.......there's a lamppost very close to the kerbside and the pigeons sit on the top doing what pigeons do.......in large quantities ???

Provided your car is taxed, insured, not blocking any access, not parked on double yellow lines, not parked within or opposite a junction within 10 metres and you're parking within the Highways Agency's clearly marked parking zones/times; you're doing nothing wrong. No one owns the pavement or bit of road outside their house; no matter how much they think they do.

I have to disagree about nobody owning the pavement or road outside their home. My title deeds clearly show I own up to the middle of the road.
Having said that I do understand that anyone can park on a council maintained road and it doesn’t bother me (though I would be upset if trucks, caravans and the like parked there long term).

Oh parking is terrible outside my house the whole world and his wife park outside it is so frustrating when you cant park anywhere where you live. Ive asked the council lots of times for resident parking and they come up with different excuses everytime all the roads around me are resident parking. I can only drive my car on a sunday because thats the only time I might be able to park near my house. If you drive away 10 mins later someone has parked in the space. I have driven round and round to find somewhere to park. Sometimes it streets away from where I live. My front garden is too small for a drive my next door neigbour as already asked the council but they said no.

There's usually plenty of space in our road for people to park. However, they frequently park right opposite our gate and disappear off walking all day. Even if they park partly on the pavement, the road is too narrow for us to be able to get our car or motorcaravan in or out.

Why don't they just park further up or further down the road where there's more space? A complete mystery.

I do feel sorry for people who live nears schools. When I'm on the school run I've seen drivers leave their vehicles all over the place and often allow their children to run across front gardens.

If a car is taxed,insured and has an MOT and was mine i would park it anywhere i want as long as it`s legal to do so.

my daughter lives in a block of apartments with allocated parking for those with two bedrooms, she has one so no space. Just recently cameras and a man patrolling that people without a permit are not parking anywhere nearby. She has to park in the next housing estate which is now causing issues for those people and their families and visitors. It seems crazy that blocks of apartment with lots of people and no parking are being built. There are a couple of visitor spaces with parking meters so when i visit i now have to pay to see her. I worry that when she returns home late at night in the winter she has a fair distance to walk to her home. Jokingingly i suggested we buy her a electric scooter to keep in her car for the journey from parking to her home!!!!!

As I said up thread, if it’s lawful to park cars on a road, then there can be no complaint. However parking is often a problem for residents of a road and this is obviously acknowledged by councils as there are so many residents only parking schemes, which are fair enough in my opinion. This doesn’t tackle the huge problem of big commercial vehicles being parked on residential streets. Often one or two lorries and a couple enormous vans belong to just one household and cause great difficulties for other residents including blocking the pavement so people have to walk in the road, and narrowing the road to the extent that larger vehicles and possibly fire engines cannot get through, as well as leaving no room for the cars belonging to other residents.

Does anyone know if there are restrictions as to size for commercial vehicles or say large camper vans that are parked in residential streets please?

threexnanny

I do feel sorry for people who live nears schools. When I'm on the school run I've seen drivers leave their vehicles all over the place and often allow their children to run across front gardens.

Our house does not have a hedge, wall or pavement outside. So our front garden ends directly onto the road. People will park outside (for school) and just let the children, and themselves literally walk over our garden. My husband has deliberately let a ground spreading plant to grow to discourage this, but they just trample over that!!!

threexnanny

I do feel sorry for people who live nears schools. When I'm on the school run I've seen drivers leave their vehicles all over the place and often allow their children to run across front gardens.

We're on a school road. I used to get really annoyed but now I tell myself it's only for a short time. The traffic speed bothers me more.

I must admit I get very fed up of people parking outside my house, but only because they block half my drive, which then makes it difficult for me to get out, and more importantly, in. I live on a cul-de-sac and there are cars parked all over the place, and little parking for residents (hence I bought a house with a drive). We have a day nursery on the road and the parents think its fine to just block everyone's drive while they drop off and collect their children. They may only be gone for a few minutes, but I think it shows a disregard for people who may need to make an emergency exit at any time, or be due to leave the house anyway.

Our neighbour was well known complaining loudly at people for parking outside his house. When my husband was in ICU my son in law had little option but park there and when the neighbour complained my SIL was quite rude to him. So I popped round to apologise for his language and explain why there were so many cars at our house and he said ." I thought someone must be in hospital with all the coming and going" I left before I cried at his lack of compassion