Gants Hill residents fed up of ‘stupid’ fines for cars parked on drives

Marvel1

They should reverse in and drive out, so much easier and safer.

Stoke

Hong_Kong_Phooey. wrote: »

It's quite easy, have you ever done it?

I've moved yes, but I'm fortunate enough to earn above average.

Le_Kirk

I assume all the residents obtained planning permission before turning their garden into a driveway and adding the obligatory dropped kerb. If they did, the council have only themselves to blame and surely cannot chase the residents assuming: -

a) the drive is the normal 5.2 metres (would need to check the exact size but it is often quoted on the "In my home/DIY" forum)
b) they park a normal sized car with consideration.

This is all negated if the houses had driveways when the properties were first built.

They cannot ALL have extra long cars!

Nodding_Donkey

Le_Kirk wrote: »

I assume all the residents obtained planning permission before turning their garden into a driveway and adding the obligatory dropped kerb. If they did, the council have only themselves to blame and surely cannot chase the residents assuming: -

a) the drive is the normal 5.2 metres (would need to check the exact size but it is often quoted on the "In my home/DIY" forum)
b) they park a normal sized car with consideration.

This is all negated if the houses had driveways when the properties were first built.

They cannot ALL have extra long cars!

So are you saying that someone with a Smart Car should be denied planning permission in case they sell their house to someone with a bigger car in the future?

Johno100

Le_Kirk wrote: »

I assume all the residents obtained planning permission before turning their garden into a driveway and adding the obligatory dropped kerb. If they did, the council have only themselves to blame and surely cannot chase the residents assuming: -

Well while you have a point regarding the installation of drop kerbs (however long ago that happened) in that the council should have assessed the suitability of it's intended use, however there is no requirement for planning permission to turn a garden into a driveway if a permeable surface e.g. block paving is used.

https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/common_projects/45/paving_your_front_garden

facade

I thought the planning permission was more because if you slab/tarmac/pave your front garden rainwater gets onto the road, rather than soaking into your soil, and overwhelms the tiny street drains.You don't need it for less than 5 square metres of slabbing, or any size using permeable materials.

You do have to have a proper dropped kerb and "reinforced pavement" to drive a car across though, which has to be applied for from the council.
There are limits to the width of the drop, and a requirement for gateposts of the same width to prevent driving over an unreinforced bit.

I think Le-Kirk is suggesting that they shouldn't have got permission for the dropped kerb in the first place if the drive is too short, and if they did then they have some sort of come-back against the council.

You can't just knock your wall down, stick some 4x2 in the gutter and park on your garden.

EDIT: Johno100 beat me to it

Stoke

Le_Kirk wrote: »

I assume all the residents obtained planning permission before turning their garden into a driveway and adding the obligatory dropped kerb. If they did, the council have only themselves to blame and surely cannot chase the residents assuming: -

a) the drive is the normal 5.2 metres (would need to check the exact size but it is often quoted on the "In my home/DIY" forum)
b) they park a normal sized car with consideration.

This is all negated if the houses had driveways when the properties were first built.

They cannot ALL have extra long cars!

Exactly. These people all clearly own massive cars like Ford Fiesta's and Renaut Clio's. I reckon we all get a Change.org petition together to force these povo !!!!ers to drive a Peel P50. Only one though, and who cares if they have a few kids, those little !!!!!!!s can ride their bicycles 3 miles to school.

Joe_Horner

cjdavies wrote: »

They should reverse in and drive out, so much easier and safer.

I must admit, that was the first thing that jumped out of that photo for me.

Every single one of them is ignoring the advice in the Highway Code despite all the drive entrances being unobstructed and easy to reverse into. Which does beg a question about their parking abilities.

It seems the council leader is taking a sensible approach that those who're taking the trouble to get their wheels inside their property are getting some slack while those who just dump the car "nearly in" with wheels still on the pavement (about half of them judging by the photos) are fair game for tickets.

Whether that's being adhered to by the enforcement officer is another matter, but it seems a perfectly reasonable attitude for the council to take in the circumstances.

Car_54

Joe_Horner wrote: »

I must admit, that was the first thing that jumped out of that photo for me.

Every single one of them is ignoring the advice in the Highway Code despite all the drive entrances being unobstructed and easy to reverse into. Which does beg a question about their parking abilities.

It seems the council leader is taking a sensible approach that those who're taking the trouble to get their wheels inside their property are getting some slack while those who just dump the car "nearly in" with wheels still on the pavement (about half of them judging by the photos) are fair game for tickets.

Whether that's being adhered to by the enforcement officer is another matter, but it seems a perfectly reasonable attitude for the council to take in the circumstances.

What have the wheels got to do with it? An obstruction can be caused by any part of the vehicle.

almillar

Then simply extend the property boundary

Hand over public property to private residents? Don't you think they should pay for that? Where would the pavement go? Where would the road go?

Isn't the answer a smaller car for each resident? They have either moved into a home, driving too big a car for a driveway, or they have lived there, and bought a car too big for their driveway. Why should their neighbour, for example, in a wheelchair, not be able to use the pavement because of them?

the difference is, you would be choosing to overhang your boot, these residents are not choosing to do this.

Aren't the residents AT ALL responsible for their own actions in your opinion?

read above, you will find parking on paving as been mentioned above.

Some of us are clearly a bit simple, or blind. What was the answer - quote it or tell us the post number.

I'm going to say that it's not easy for someone who's lived somewhere for many years to move.

Changing car would be easier, certainly.