Council contractors want OH's truck moved but he is in USA

littlerock

In our neighbourhood of Victorian houses everyone parks on the street, and has residents permits to do so. That includes OH and me. OH has what would be called a truck in the US, a large van with windows. I drive a small runabout, an automatic. Our road is very narrow and it is only possible to park on one side, our side.

OH's van is parked outside our house at present, quite legitimately, while he is away in the USA for ten days. Council contractors have been relaying the paving slabs in our road for some weeks now and worked their way down our side to the end and started recently to work their way back up the other side again, relaying the pavement on the other side of the road.

I assume they must have reached our end again, as this afternoon, temporary barriers appeared in the road next to the pavement on our side, from OHs van up to the corner junction with a neighbouring road, about 30 yards away. A note was pushed through the door saying OH needed to move his van. We were given no advance warning they were arriving, they seemed to be working some way down the road last time I saw them.

I spoke to the contractors and managed to explain that OH was away and I could not drive it but they have little english and basically shrugged. So I phoned the council today and was told it was being handled by subcontractors and I should deal with them. Maybe I could get them or a neighbour to move it?!!! They said they would speak to the contractors if necessary but I do not really want someone unknown moving it.

There are the insurance issues to start with. Then there is no one I know immediately available to drive it. My next door neighbours on one one side are away, the other is 93, and opposite is an empty house and one with new owners I have yet to meet.

I have the keys and can move the van forward a bit , but I have never driven it, it is too big for me to see out of properly as I am very short. I would not fancy my chances driving it round the block looking for a free space and then parallel parking it. The contractors have put up so much temporary fencing that there are no free spaces left in our area, I only just managed to squeeze my own car into a very tight spot round the corner.

If we had known the contractors were arriving back at our end to repave it so quickly, OH would have parked it somewhere else. But we did not, and there was no advance warning that we would need to keep the pavement clear at our end. The contractors uplift the old paving slabs, get new ones delivered and store these and large piles of sand and concrete in the road as they go. I assume they need the road next to the pavement on our side for this purpose as there is no parking space opposite.

Any suggestions?

BoGoF

Somehow you need to get it moved otherwise you may find it gets moved for you...if council has properly imposed traffic restrictions then they would be able to tow it away.

twhitehousescat

yup , up to counsil to uplift it and to park it somewhere safe (legal)

missile

Tell them it is not our van and they will have to come back when your OH is at home. I would tell this to the council …….. in writing. You might want to contact your local councillor and seek his/her assistance.

comeandgo

missile wrote: »

Tell them it is not our van and they will have to come back when your OH is at home. I would tell this to the council …….. in writing. You might want to contact your local councillor and seek his/her assistance.

No, the contractors will move it. It's better the owner moves it safely. Can you get in touch with a lorry hire company and ask to hire one of their drivers for half an hour? They should have their own insurance and it will be moved safely. The council may have had notices on the lampposts beside you asking residents to move their cars on a certain date. I have seen the council move vehicles, not a pretty sight.

littlerock

There have definitely not been any notices pinned up anywhere about the need to keep the road clear. Thinking back I think the Council put a leaflet through our doors when they relaid the paving slabs on our side originally but that only referred to the period they were working on our side (about 6 weeks ago). We have had nothing since.

I suspect that they have notified the people opposite - there are only three houses opposite our end of the road because historically they predate our Victorian ones and are individual houses with large gardens and off street parking.There are around 14 houses on our side where we are tightly packed Victorian semis and none have off street parking.

I suspect the Council probably has not realised that the contractors need to block off the parking spaces on our side of the street to work on the other side, where there are no parking spaces. There are very few street locally which are so narrow you can only park on one side, like ours.

Begsey

twhitehousescat wrote: »

yup , up to counsil to uplift it and to park it somewhere safe (legal)

Probably, thing is, they'll probably uplift it and safely store it somewhere that requires payment to release it.

DUTR

littlerock wrote: »

In our neighbourhood of Victorian houses everyone parks on the street, and has residents permits to do so. That includes OH and me. OH has what would be called a truck in the US, a large van with windows. I drive a small runabout, an automatic. Our road is very narrow and it is only possible to park on one side, our side.

OH's van is parked outside our house at present, quite legitimately, while he is away in the USA for ten days. Council contractors have been relaying the paving slabs in our road for some weeks now and worked their way down our side to the end and started recently to work their way back up the other side again, relaying the pavement on the other side of the road.

I assume they must have reached our end again, as this afternoon, temporary barriers appeared in the road next to the pavement on our side, from OHs van up to the corner junction with a neighbouring road, about 30 yards away. A note was pushed through the door saying OH needed to move his van. We were given no advance warning they were arriving, they seemed to be working some way down the road last time I saw them.

I spoke to the contractors and managed to explain that OH was away and I could not drive it but they have little english and basically shrugged. So I phoned the council today and was told it was being handled by subcontractors and I should deal with them. Maybe I could get them or a neighbour to move it?!!! They said they would speak to the contractors if necessary but I do not really want someone unknown moving it.

There are the insurance issues to start with. Then there is no one I know immediately available to drive it. My next door neighbours on one one side are away, the other is 93, and opposite is an empty house and one with new owners I have yet to meet.

I have the keys and can move the van forward a bit , but I have never driven it, it is too big for me to see out of properly as I am very short. I would not fancy my chances driving it round the block looking for a free space and then parallel parking it. The contractors have put up so much temporary fencing that there are no free spaces left in our area, I only just managed to squeeze my own car into a very tight spot round the corner.

If we had known the contractors were arriving back at our end to repave it so quickly, OH would have parked it somewhere else. But we did not, and there was no advance warning that we would need to keep the pavement clear at our end. The contractors uplift the old paving slabs, get new ones delivered and store these and large piles of sand and concrete in the road as they go. I assume they need the road next to the pavement on our side for this purpose as there is no parking space opposite.

Any suggestions?

I'd suggest you stop looking at reasons not to move it so that the necessary work can be carried out on time.
I cannot believe that you know absolutely no one that can move the vehicle for you, it's only temporary.

family4tunes

DUTR wrote: »

I'd suggest you stop looking at reasons not to move it so that the necessary work can be carried out on time.
I cannot believe that you know absolutely no one that can move the vehicle for you, it's only temporary.

Totally agree, I believe there must be another neighbour or friend around that you can ask to move the vehicle. It would only be temporary thing and only necessitate a small movement.

The council do have the right to move it and there would have been notices through the post to local residents or flyers placed in the area to notify residents of forthcoming work etc with a request to keep workable areas free. If you leave it for them to relocate the vehicle you could end up with charges being placed for doing so, and less care of the vehicle when doing so.

I believe like the other member you are making a mountain out of a mole hill and should just comply, its not an unreasonable request after all.

unforeseen

DUTR wrote: »

I'd suggest you stop looking at reasons not to move it so that the necessary work can be carried out on time.
I cannot believe that you know absolutely no one that can move the vehicle for you, it's only temporary.

Of course the op will know lots of people who are willing to drive a vehicle without the owners permission or any insurance. We all do.

coffeehound

I suppose one way to do it would be to pay a local motor garage to move the vehicle by an insured technician or delivery driver.