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Neighbours creating illegal driveways

goldlemontree
goldlemontree Posts: 75 Forumite
Tenth Anniversary 10 Posts Combo Breaker
We’ve lived in a grove for over 25 years however recently we’ve had people knocking down their front garden fences and parking on their grass, but then asking people not to park in front of the house. Bear in mind, there is no dropped kerb, these houses are flats and most are council owned so they don’t own the kerb outside it - just wondering how to report these and would the council do anything since they haven’t dropped the kerb making an illegal driveway, but they are asking people not to park there often when there is no assigned parking in the grove, so people including me are having to park out on the street. 

I appreciate some people will say just park there anyway, but I don’t like conflict over something not worth it and would rather just report them and a few others at the same time?
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Comments

  • Report them to the council. You need planning to create a driveway and bumping over the kerb is not permitted. Report them to planning and highways 
  • Ant555
    Ant555 Posts: 1,579 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper

    You aren't in Wales are you?

    Some councils seem to be very keen to address this situation.

    https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/politics/drivers-barry-charged-215-council-19664018

  • Norman_Castle
    Norman_Castle Posts: 11,871 Forumite
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    Nobody owns the kerb outside their home, its part of the highway
  • Carrot007
    Carrot007 Posts: 4,534 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I appreciate some people will say just park there anyway, but I don’t like conflict over something not worth it and would rather just report them and a few others at the same time?

    ANd as much as many would od the same there is your main issue. You want someone else to deal with it for you. It is not going to happen. The police will not care. They may get toldnot to do it but no one will check up.

    Buty a couple orf (road legal) clunkers and park it so thety cannot use it (preferabley when they are on the drie). Or couruse you wobnt and niether would I. However in the end this is down to you. Park where yopu are legally entitled to or do not. Sounds like it's more the area and you should move to me. Or course again that is also not easy.

  • Ant555 said:

    You aren't in Wales are you?

    Some councils seem to be very keen to address this situation.

    https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/politics/drivers-barry-charged-215-council-19664018

    Unfortunately no, Birmingham!
  • Norman_Castle
    Norman_Castle Posts: 11,871 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    A friends neigbour in a b'ham council house was told to stop parking as you've described. The friend in an rtb property was doing the same, neither had dropped kerbs but the council housing department were only interested in their tenants. Try contacting the housing department.
  • TELLIT01
    TELLIT01 Posts: 17,502 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper PPI Party Pooper
    There have been numerous reports of councils taking action to prevent precisely the actions the OP describes.  A couple of years ago our local council put up bollards to prevent people from driving over the pavement and a small green to park their cars.  Some people had created paved parking areas within their boundary but there were no drop kerbs and they had no right to drive over the pavement.  I believe it is actually an offence to do so, but the individual must be caught in the act to be prosecuted.
  • Section62
    Section62 Posts: 8,697 Forumite
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    We’ve lived in a grove for over 25 years however recently we’ve had people knocking down their front garden fences and parking on their grass, but then asking people not to park in front of the house. Bear in mind, there is no dropped kerb, these houses are flats and most are council owned so they don’t own the kerb outside it...
    The first thing you need to do is find out whether the road is (public) highway, or an "estate road".  Most roads are highways maintained at public expense, but if yours is part of an estate developed by the council there is a possibility that the road wasn't adopted and has remained an estate road. (in effect a private road owned and maintained by the council)

    Normally it is possible to find out a road's status from the council's website - most of them have a mapping facility which will include layers showing who is responsible for each road. If you can't find it on the general maps, try using the highway fault reporting tool - this will often exclude roads that aren't maintainable at public expense, or will flag those that someone other than the highways department are responsible for.

    Planning consent is only required in certain specific situations, so there's no point contacting the planning department until you (and we) know more about the situation. In this situation it is far more likely that planning consent isn't required than it is.
  • fezster
    fezster Posts: 485 Forumite
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    Contact the Highways department at the council. Driving over a pavement without a dropped kerb is an offence and will most likely result in damage to the pavement, as it has not been reinforced to support the weight of a vehicle. The cost of repair will be passed onto the perpetrator(s).
  • Section62
    Section62 Posts: 8,697 Forumite
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    fezster said:

    Driving over a pavement without a dropped kerb is an offence...
    Often said (including by some highway authorities), but only true in a very small minority of cases.

    Before complaining to anyone the OP needs to do is to work out what kind of road this is. That will determine who to complain to, and what laws (if any) might have been broken.
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