Help me deal with a neighbour!

[jamiehamy]

26 minutes ago, AliG said:

Surely he has just painted that parking space himself. I can't see how an officially sanctioned parking space would extend from the road onto the pavement.

 

Indeed now seeing that number 14 has a driveway and looking at the original map showing space in front of number 10 and number 16 the whole situation looks very suspicious. I am guessing that all of these houses have driveways. The council does not paint bays in front of people's houses on the public road that are their own personal parking (at least certainly not here). People do not own parking on the public highway. Fair enough if it was some kind of separate parking area, but it doesn't appear to be.

 

Around here what the council does is paint single white lines across the front of driveways to dissuade people parking in front of them. Surely the council only paint individual spaces if they are charging for parking.

 

Depends on how unpopular you want to be, but I suspect that if you check with the highways department they are indeed all "rogue" spaces. 

 

 

I agree 

[Jeremy Harris]

It's definitely a "rogue" parking bay, no question about it, and arguably defacing the road and pavement is the same, legally, as graffiti.  Parking on the pavement so as to cause an obstruction (as that van does when parked in that bay) is also an offence, I believe. 

 

I'm going to hazard a guess here, from looking at the photos, that the drive alongside number 14 is a bit narrow, and not that easy to get the van in and out of, which is why he's decided to park on the road.  The parking bay looks suspiciously like it's been marked to the size of the van!

 

The only long term answer here is for the owner of number 14 to accept that his parking bay has no legal standing, that the council have said it should be removed and for him to sort out how he's going to park his van in future.  Bear in mind that the fire service will need to be able to get their vehicles within a given distance of the furthest part of your new build, too, and they may well insist that the area in front of your entrance be kept clear so a fire engine can get to it.

 

If I lived in number 14 I think I'd have a look at whether the drive could be widened so as to allow better access.  It looks easy enough to do to me.  I'd not offer to do any work for the owner of number 14, as they knew when they bought the house that there was planning permission for the plot that was once their garden, and that the obvious access to that would be used at some future date and so would need to be kept clear.

 

If you don't want to get confrontational with the owner of number 14, then you could ask the fire service if they would advise you as to the access they require, and use that as a lever to get the owner of number 14 to understand the problem he'd cause if he carries of restricting the access to your plot.

[Nickfromwales]

 

I only just realised that the parking space had been drawn on the pavement  !!

Ask the highways to come and go over it with black tar / paint and end this madness.   

 

Edit to add : As @JSHarris has said, I'd report it as graffiti and ask that the offending paint be removed as part of their own maintenance. "If you don't ask" eh?

[TerryE]

On 06/03/2017 at 12:22, Nickfromwales said:

I only just realised that the parking space had been drawn on the pavement

 

Yup, I wondered about this. IMO, the local Highways Department would never do (or approve) allocating parking on a public footpath.  I strongly suspect that the originator of the reserved parking area was your neighbour himself.  It's about as valid as you painting  "NO PARKING" over it.

[hmpmarketing]

Hello All,

 

An update on this saga, so busy lately with finalising everything so have not logged in for a long time.

 

Couple of days ago, as I was moving some stuff into the house, I happen to accidentally meet the neighbour in question as I was going back to my car. He politely greeted me, and to my surprise, we had a very enjoyable conversation lasting over 30 mins. In the end, he asked me if I was happy if he parked his van in an angle (so that it would not obstruct my entrance), so in the end, all went well so the stress is over!!!  

 

Only thing left is to get rid of the parking marks  

 

 

Edited June 6, 2017 by hmpmarketing

[jack]

Ha, nice one!