Parking problems - cars blocking our driveway

abankerbutnotafatcat

We've just moved in to a new house. It's on residential street of Victorian properties and ours is one of the few to have a driveway. Already, in the first week, we are finding cars parked in front of our drive preventing us from getting on to or out of it. Any thoughts?? Is there anything we can do. It does have a dipped pavement outside clearly indicating it's a drive.

Gloomendoom

In the past, I have found that bouncing the offending vehicles out of the way usually works. You need two people though.

A less direct approach may be to speak to the police. I believe it is illegal to block a car in, but not out.
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scottishminnie

Couple of suggestions:

A polite note left on their windscreen pointing out the need for the driveway to remain clear and that in future you will take steps to remove their vehicle and cannot be held responsible for any damage caused during this process

or

a couple of traffic cones blocking off the space. Of course this would mean liberating a few from somewhere else but may be worth a try

VfM4meplse

I have never found polite notes to work. Have a chat with your local PCSO?

If you can determine the cause of the traffic (ie station, hospital etc) it may be worth talking to them to get the message through to their clients.

If your driveway is blocked, I'm sure that your neighbours will have had difficulty at times in parking close to their homes. The best solution of course would be to speak to the council, with a view to turning the area into a resident's only zone. It takes some time to go through a consultation process, and would charge a nominal fee for permits, but that way the street would be patrolled by wardens regularly.

ic

I had this problem - when I moved in the driveway was more just a strip of land - it did however have a dropped kerb. One of the first things I had done was to get a drive laid.

I initially had trouble with neighbours overhanging the driveway (it might be 14 foot wide, but when somebody leaves a gap just wide enough to fit a car through you have NO visibility of oncoming traffic whatsoever). I'd knock on and ask them to move. Within a couple of months they'd all gotten the idea that someone lived there and stopped blocking me. However longer term the issue was with cars visiting a church a few doors down - I even once had an old man park on my drive, blocking me in! (he played insanity when he came out of the funeral and invited me round for a cup of tea and that I was welcome to block him in at his house any time...).

I relentlessly complained to the council - took photos whenever somebody parked over the drive. Eventually they caved and let me have a marking across the drive. This has done the trick - it is very rare people park over the drive now, they might overhang the markings by a foot (which extend wider than the drive) but I still manage.

The one thing that always annoyed me was peoples answer "I was only going to be a minute" "I'm just dropping something off" "I didn't think you were in" etc., somehow thinking they were the first to have ever caused such an inconvenience to you.

PS [STRIKE]liberating[/STRIKE] stealing traffic cones is not the answer, nor is threatening to damage other cars - this will do nothing to help you if somebody complains that you are threatening them. At the end of the day you want good relations with your neighbours.

getmore4less

Get two cars to block them in really tight.

Aquatronixjenny

If the council have given you permission to drop the kerb then it may be worth having a word with them to see if you can put a marking in the road.

MrsAtobe

I have had this problem, and it really is a pain. If they are stopping you from getting out, then yes, it is an offence. Call the police and ask for their advice. If they are stopping you from getting in, is there anyway that you can park so that they can't get move their car? This is what I ended up doing, and the few repeat offenders ended up getting the message. But the rows I've had on the doorstep about it.

One of them reckoned he'd only been a minute, his face was a picture when I pointed out I'd had time to run a bath in the time since I got home! As he then got really aggressive, I told him that if he carried on, I'd go and have my bath and move the car when I was ready. He backed down really quickly after that!

It might be worth you talking to the council about getting lines painted on the road. HTH.

muckybutt

What is a drop curb?
A drop curb is a roadside curb / pavement that is angled downwards towards the road to allow vehicles to easily drive up and down the curb.
Parking in front of drop curbs is not allowed. It causes obstructions to driveway access, road crossing access and both pedestrian and driver visibility. Blocking driveway and crossing access is inconvenient and selfish but obstructing visibility can be very dangerous to pedestrians and road users.

Department of Transport state :
Parking alongside Dropped Kerbs

Parking alongside dropped kerbs is prohibited in London under the provisions of Section 14 of the London Local Authorities and Transport for London Act 2003.
Part 6 of the Traffic Management Act 2004 when enacted will repeal section 14 and give all local authorities in England with civil parking enforcement powers the ability to take action when a vehcile is parked alongside a dropped kerb in a Special Enforcement Area (that is, an area where parking is, in all other instances, permitted). The regulations underpinning Part 6 of this Act are due to come into force early in 2008.
Action to regulate and enforce pavement parking or parking alongside dropped kerbs is strictly a matter for the relevant local authority.

Dippypud

Gloomendoom wrote: »

In the past, I have found that bouncing the offending vehicles out of the way usually works. You need two people though.

A less direct approach may be to speak to the police. I believe it is illegal to block a car in, but not out.
.

What is your local authority and what is their veiw on parking across dropped kerbs, is it like Hillingdon?...

http://www.hillingdon.gov.uk/index.jsp?articleid=7310

You can also print off some leaflets to put on windscreens

Read this...http://www.ukmotorists.com/parking%20regulations.htm

ukjoel

Key line is first in your sentance - We have just moved into.

My gran lives on a road where she has the only house with an attached garage and a driveway with a dropped kerb.

Since Grandad died she never used it and after a couple of years people started parking in front of her drive. Then they started parking on her drive.

She got !!!!ed off but said nothing and whenever we visited we used to block people in. Often for the day. Once for two weeks .

We also used to leave an old car in the garage and it came out whenever someone blocked the drive and there have been numerous towaways - including several where car wasnt taxed, or insured and we never saw that car again.

Councils love these as they get to put in residents parking where they charge you £200 a year for 2 tickets to park your own car outside your own house. Its like a 20% increase in council tax and people seem to love it.