Parking in front of driveways

sillyvixen

golddustmedia wrote: »

When I was a child my parents lived on a road with a church near the bottom of it. Every Sunday all the god squad used to block peoples drive ways. It got really annoying as one day we were prevent from going to an arranged social event and you can't exactly march into the church mid sermon and demand someone move their car.

So my Dad cut a round piece of paper the same size as a tax disc, wrote a rude message on it and superglued it to their windscreen exactly obscuring their tax disc. Hopefully it wasn't found until a policeman wanted to check the tax...

my church is on a street where there is only on road parking for the houses in the street, we have a carpark and 4 chained spaces on our fourcout. the chains have been cut many times for local residents to get their cars in worst of all is the illegal parking on the double yellow lines outside the church, our church is a traditional looking church - not ambiguous looking building - and many times undertakers have not been able to acess th forcourt due to cars parking on it from local residents or even pull up on double yellow lines as residents are illegally parked..how embarrising for morners to see loved one manhandelled in a coffin down the street from the carpark of the local industrial estate who let us park there on sundays and by arranegment for weddingsand funerals..other times brides and grooms have had no phot opertunities to have photos outside the church as whole area blocked by local residents cars!!! parking on yellowlines or private property (church forecourt) is illegal we know the owners- who refuse to move and the police are not interested.. if the police chiefs father was having his funeral or his daughter was getting married then it would surely be a different matter!!!!

maplegirl2011

i had a problem with a van blocking my driveway for 3 days once. kent police said they couldn't do anything unless i had a medical appointment or children at school/nursery.

Snooze

I used to have blocked driveway problems too. I called the cops about it and they said they couldn't do anything because they didn't have the resources (usual excuse) but said legally I could move the vehicle as long as I didn't damage it. Unfortunately it's a bit difficult to move it when you're hemmed in on your driveway.

Anyway, that night after returning from work I found that my driveway was blocked again, so I did no more than trundle off to the local 24hr garage and purchase a tow rope and then went back and dragged the car (using my own car) clear of the driveway.

This solved the problem for a day or two but then returned again. Not to be beaten I got on my PC and made an A3 sheet up saying "NO PARKING. 24 HOUR ACCESS REQUIRED. VEHICLES WILL BE REMOVED AT OWNER'S EXPENSE. £100 RELEASE FEE + £25 PER DAY STORAGE. ABC PARKING ENFORCEMENT 07890 123456" etc, and put it on my driveway gates after laminating it.

Next morning I looked out of my window and the same car from a few days ago was once again blocking my driveway. I pulled out the Thomson Local and flicked through to the car recovery section and got some quotes for a hi-ab (crane) recovery of a car to move it 1 mile away to a mates yard. Cheapest was £30 so I booked them, and they were free to do it right now too. I dug out my digital camera and took several time stamped photos of the offending vehicle and made sure the notice was clearly visible. The recovery truck came round, lifted it and took it to my mates company yard where he handed them £30 in cash.

Couple of hours later there was a braying at my door by a highly irate woman demanding where her car was. I looked at her very innocently and apologised for not knowing, then suggested she contacted the company on the 'no parking' notice as they might know. She belled up the number and went through to my mate on his PAYG mobile who had the car and gave him !!!! over it but he pointed out that the sign is clear enough and asked how she would like to pay in order for her car to be released. She replied that she would be contacting the police and ended the call.

She came back and gave me some ear-ache over it but I just pointed her at the sign and told her it was no-one's fault but her own. She eventually wandered off and about an hour later phoned the number again and said she would pay and asked where the car was. My mate told her and after telling her that he only accepted cash payment she bowled up about 45 minutes later and handed over £100 in cash in exchange for the keys.

We reckon that when she called the cops she was told that there was nothing they could do if there was a sign there stating what it did, hence why she paid up so quickly.

Only had the problem once since then and the car was moved just as I was picking up the phone for recovery truck, much to my annoyance .

By the way, if you want to do this yourself and you don't have a handy yard to store the vehicle, speak to the recovery place. When I spoke the company who I used after the event, they said that they would've been more than happy to store the car for me, but it would've been £50 per day not £25. A quick adjustment of your notice would soon sort out that issue.

Rgds,

Rob

superscholesy

Snooze wrote: »

My mate told her and after telling her that he only accepted cash payment she bowled up about 45 minutes later and handed over £100 in cash in exchange for the keys.

Why did you have the keys?
If you had the keys why did you hire a truck to pick the car up you could have drove the car away or just moved it

judderman62

charb wrote: »

i had a problem with a van blocking my driveway for 3 days once. kent police said they couldn't do anything unless i had a medical appointment or children at school/nursery.

then they are lazy ******* who don't want to do their job (yes how surprising for the police eh :rolleyes:)

I have once called them and said if by time I had to leave for work car was still there would they come and deal with it and they said yes. Another time they did send someone (granted a plastic policeman rather than a fully fledged officer) and he did deal with the issue and confirmed if need be they will move vehicles.

Seems it varies by area/postcode.

Snooze

superscholesy wrote: »

Why did you have the keys?
If you had the keys why did you hire a truck to pick the car up you could have drove the car away or just moved it

Sorry, yes of course - £100 in exchange for her car, ie. showing her where it'd been put. She obviously had the keys but needed to know where it was.

Just the same as what happens on that 'cars, cops and bailiffs' tv prog.

Rgds,

Rob

kentyy

I regularly have problems with people parking across my driveway (dropped curb) as we have a busy road and we have the only driveway in the road.
I regularly phoned the police who deal with it in different ways depending on how busy or bothered the police are. They can put tickets on the car but if they do that, the can't remove the car. They can try and contact the driver and sometimes that works. They can have the car moved but then they don't put a ticket on the car. I am disabled so they do tend to help rather than just not bother most of the time. Now most of the neighbours think I'm a witch as i regularly phone the police if someone parks blocking my driveway BUT it has stopped a lot of people doing it because they know i'm gonna call the cops, so the more that get the police on them, the less they do it. It's worth being thought of horrible by the neighbours just to have less hassle.
The only problem is that now i have to have a security camera because of the damage done to my car in retaliation.
So in some ways its good that ive got a clearer driveway, and someways its bad as i now have to deal with the car getting damaged.
The council said a line would be painted across the drive (so no parking on the line) only if i can prove that it is really needed. they said to keep a record of every time the police have to be called out so that it shows if it is needed. I'm not sure how many times this has to happen before the council agree to paint a line there. They said we couldnt have our own line painted there as that would be against the law, yet isn't it in the highway code book that you mustn't park across driveways with dropped curbs? is that not against the law?

tomstickland

golddustmedia wrote: »

So my Dad cut a round piece of paper the same size as a tax disc, wrote a rude message on it and superglued it to their windscreen exactly obscuring their tax disc. Hopefully it wasn't found until a policeman wanted to check the tax...

I think that's pretty pathetic actually. A clear note on the windscreen explaining the problem would be a better way of dealing with it.

Sssssss

tomstickland wrote: »

I think that's pretty pathetic actually. A clear note on the windscreen explaining the problem would be a better way of dealing with it.

yeah but t wats who park where they want are hardly going to be put off by a piece of paper!

JohnG

Just looking to see if anyone has an issue with people who complain about parking on the road outside of their house (not blocking their drive) and what responses may or may not of been made?

One of my regular customer's elderly neighbours complains vehemently about anyone who parks outside his house, always claiming he is expecting freinds to call or has a taxi coming etc etc. I have to park up the road on occasions simply to keep the peace.
He even complains to his neighbours if they dare to leave their car outside, even if they just want to unload shopping etc!

Certainly not very neighbourly and since when have residents been able to stake a claim for parking on a public road where there are absolutely no parking restrictions?

Clearly the chap has a problem and a very large chip on his shoulder (He/they have complained about many other things in the past too).

Personally I would like to give him an ear full but obviously, in the interest of keeping the peace, I have to bite my tongue.

I guess it just takes all sorts..... :rolleyes: