Council moaning re. parking

[Martay]

Hi,
looking for some advice.

We live down a quiet residential road, houses both sides of the 1way road. The houses opposite have a layby along the length of the road for parking. This is normally always full, or the space is allocated for the people to come home to.
Our side, the layby is only just big enough for 3 cars. This is to serve a run of 5 houses, all of which have at least 1 car each.
Obviously, there isnt enough parking, so i normally park on the grass verge out the front of my house. Never had a problem. Im sensible, dont wheelspin it etc, and ive happily moved it in the past when the council wanted to mow the grass.
Anyways, got a letter today addressed to the 5 houses, basically saying do not park here otherwise they will take action!!!
I rung them up, spoke to the bloke who issued the letter. I said there is simply not enough parking to accomodate the cars, and i dont park on the road as my car is a resonable size, and i dont want to cause issues for cars driving past.
He said its got a 'High Priority' ( ) and they will be getting the police involved against persistant offenders and will fence the area off, blocking a car in if needs be! I laughed at him. If the fence my car in, i will either drive through the fence or cut a gateway through!
Suggestions?
Ta
PS Ive attached a piccy to help.
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Eat well, poo hard
Drives: Cavalier 2.0 16v
Rides: Slightly ratted Honda City Express

[JP7]

You're in a difficult position because it's council property. If they decide to get funny about it and put fencing or bollards up to prevent people parking there, there's not much you can do about it. Fencing a vehicle in or getting the police involved sounds rather like an idle threat. If you're not causing an obstruction, which looking at the pic you aren't, the cops won't do a lot.

It sounds to me like some Nimby has rung the council and complained, or some sort of incident has occurred that has made them notice.

You may end up having to park on the road until they go on some other crusade. Which will be completely legal, but ironically more obstructive!

[MaybeGuy]

just put it in your garden?
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Blue_SV650S wrote: it was a sh1te wheelie, but it proves that he can get it up in 3rd and can do angles. In summery, mattsprattuk is a gobby little sh1tebag, dopehead tw4t, but sadly for all of us, he probably isn't THAT full of sh1te!!
Kickstart wrote: Hi I tend to agree with Matt. All the best Keith

[calyx]

Park it somewhere else and walk for 3 minutes you lazy bar steward
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Boris - London

[stinkwheel]

Fuck-em. Park it on the road.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[Martay]

[D O G]

[Walloper]

Better to talk or write to you MP (Whether you voted for the clown or not.)
You are up against folk who didn't do well at school if you are talking to the council.
They are, mostly, fucking idiots who live in an institutionalised existence protected by local and national legislation.

They do not deal in compromise as the individuals who 'deal' with stuff have no personal remit to change interpret rules.

Do not let it get to police as this will put those fucking morons on your case too.

If others are affected then you must ALL speak to a councilor and ask for improvements to parking as A PRIORITY.

This is a legacy of our shitty past when the working man was never expected to own a vehicle/horse.
Fight them but at their own game.
I had to deal with a useless-twat-of-a-man about speed bumps on a long stretch of road.
The bumps were made of concrete mono-block impossible to stop on and some were on 90deg. bends on an incline bla bla....

Anyway, I thought if I asked I might get some understanding.
Did I fuck.
But funnily enough after talking to the local MP the lumps on the road were moved and others re-surfaced about three months later.
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W-ireless A-rtificial L-ifeform L-imited to O-bservation P-eacekeeping and E-fficient R-epair

[Rogerborg]

[owdamer]

Can't see you getting anywhere with the council on this one to be honest. I complained to our local council that my street was getting jammed with cars from neighbouring streets and they just looked at at map and told me to park in my back yard. Seeing as this is a shared yard that wasn't really an option so they then said rent a garage. I think its in the councils remit to discourage car ownership so they do little if anything to help.

[Walloper]

[ajbsmirnoff]

[-LG-]

[Martay]

[Rogerborg]

[iooi]

[G]

I used to always park my van half on a bit of 'council' grass. While there was a fair bit of space on the road, seemed fair to make sure there was as much space as possible for people turning etc. Regularly much longer grass under my van.

Definitely write to your MP. I'd be tempted to print the letter and send it, but include an email address for replies.

It looks like there's loads of space to make some diagonal parking spaces. Perhaps request that this is done to alleviate the problem.

Definitely try and rally your neighbours around, especially those that like to think they have 'their' space and explain you really don't want to take up space on the road.

How about buying a couple of old cars and parking them on the street to inconvenience stuff further?

[DrDonnyBrago]

Park in the spaces if you get there first, park on the road if not. Park legally and anything beyond that is not your problem.

[yen_powell]

If you increased the length of the north eastern layby right into the grassed area you could accomodate an extra 4 cars. Increase it one bay to the left as well that would be 5 extra cars. Switch to echelon parking (if the road is one way as you say) on the north eastern side only, plus the layby extension and you'll have more spaces than you need.

If it was me I'd draw up plans to scale showing the proposed changes and a rough estimate of the cost.

Then start a petition to the local councillors pointing out the proposed parking enforcement action, the fact that current estate parking guidelines recomend that residents should be able to see their cars when parked from their house and the potential improvements to sightlines and pedestrian safety which would result.

Get all the people in the street to all sign it. Then go the the neighbouring streets and knock on doors and ask them to sign it saying that this would mean less cars overspilling onto their streets.

Follow up the petition by visiting your councillor at his surgery and asking him if he would meet residents to see the problem first hand. If he agrees, make it look worse than it is by arranging the meeting for when the road is most full of vehicles. Make him a cup of tea and offer him nice biscuits.

Yours faithfully
A fucking idiot who lives in an institutionalised existence protected by local and national legislation (aka a nincompoop)
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Blackmail is a nasty word........but not as nasty as phlegm!
XT1200Z and a DR350 in bits

[st3v3]

As above, give them plans for constructive action signed off by your neighbours and ask them; if that won't work what do they suggest?

if you park on the street and your care is damaged you will send the bill to the council office since you gave plans to rectify and they ignored it. it's not a double yellow'd road, they can't ticket you for parking there and I've seen this happen all over the land.. if the Police come ask them what offence it is?

When DVLA told me "it's an offence to neither re-tax your vehicle or declare it SORN" I asked what offence I would be guilty of, they said "it's an offence", I said if they can't tell me what offence it is i don't see myself liable for it..

I know they're right but they coldn't tell me after a half-hour chat what I would be guilty of (er, it's a non-endorsable offence with a max £200 fine) so see if the cops can inform you on your rights, and wrongs.

I'd still park there for now...
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Roger wrote: Women don't get damp for clingy puppies. Get some better happy pills, hit the gym & buy a medallion the size of a dinner plate. Job done

[Walloper]

[Rogerborg]

[G]

[Rogerborg]

[G]

Hmm, I see what you mean, but rather 'open to interpretation'.