Parking question

[Fallon]

I live on a village road with no pedestrian pathways. A neighbour with a large, detached house has driveway parking to the side of their house straight off the road via two large gates, as well as pedestrian access to the front of the house via a regular garden gate.

I live in a terraced house (one of seven) with no off-street parking. Those of us who live in the terrace park either along the terrace itself or in front of the detached house - obviously not across the driveway gates.

Parking is extremely limited. The neighbour in the detached house regularly leaves obnoxious notes on cars she sees as 'blocking' her pedestrian gate. Bearing in mind the gate opens straight onto the road, and she has a means of access to/from her property via the driveway gate, is anyone actually doing anything wrong/illegal by parking over the pedestrian gate?

I can't find any useful information on the web about this, as everything seems to concentrate on driveway issues, not pedestrian matters.

[Stay in Bed Instead]

Fallon said:

I live on a village road with no pedestrian pathways. A neighbour with a large, detached house has driveway parking to the side of their house straight off the road via two large gates, as well as pedestrian access to the front of the house via a regular garden gate.

I live in a terraced house (one of seven) with no off-street parking. Those of us who live in the terrace park either along the terrace itself or in front of the detached house - obviously not across the driveway gates.

Parking is extremely limited. The neighbour in the detached house regularly leaves obnoxious notes on cars she sees as 'blocking' her pedestrian gate. Bearing in mind the gate opens straight onto the road, and she has a means of access to/from her property via the driveway gate, is anyone actually doing anything wrong/illegal by parking over the pedestrian gate?

I can't find any useful information on the web about this, as everything seems to concentrate on driveway issues, not pedestrian matters.

What about visitors to the house, postman etc?

It's only a few feet, can't all of you in the terraced houses agree to leave access?

[Mr Pointy]

Well if you're stopping her using her gate I'm not surprised really. Even if she can open the driveway gates to get in blocking her gate is not the most neighbourly thing to do is it?

[anonymous-user]

She needs to face the fact she bought a house with a gate directly onto a road with no parking restrictions. They'll be going for 20 limit soon.

[Fallon]

Stay in Bed Instead said:

What about visitors to the house, postman etc?

It's only a few feet, can't all of you in the terraced houses agree to leave access?

Parking is extremely limited in the road, and none of us residents park over her gates - it's friends, visitors and trades/delivery people who get the note treatment.

I'm all for being neighbourly, but she's so rude in her handling of the matter. She could put a polite note on her pedestrian gate, but I think she prefers the conflict.

[Fallon]

Mr Pointy said:

Well if you're stopping her using her gate I'm not surprised really. Even if she can open the driveway gates to get in blocking her gate is not the most neighbourly thing to do is it?

Us residents don't block her gate; it's unsuspecting friends, visitors and trades/delivery people who get the note treatment. She'll even stick notes on cars which aren't, actually, 'blocking' the pedestrian gate, but are parked with what she judges to be part of their vehicle 'too close'.

[Pica-Pica]

Fallon said:

Us residents don't block her gate; it's unsuspecting friends, visitors and trades/delivery people who get the note treatment. She'll even stick notes on cars which aren't, actually, 'blocking' the pedestrian gate, but are parked with what she judges to be part of their vehicle 'too close'.

‘We’ residents, not ‘us’ residents!
Anyhow, lucky she is not in a tourist attraction area on a holiday weekend!
The issue with leaving access, is also leaving adequate sight-lines as well.
As far as I am aware anyway, blocking a vehicle in is illegal; blocking a vehicle out is not. Play that game for a while!

[MrTrilby]

RogerDodger said:

She needs to face the fact she bought a house with a gate directly onto a road with no parking restrictions. They'll be going for 20 limit soon.

It’s a sad world we live in when people think that we only have to behave reasonably towards our fellow humans if there are parking restrictions to force us.

I can quite understand the neighbour’s frustrations with not being able to use her own gate. If people are parking selfishly and blocking the gate when visiting the terraced houses, it’s the responsibility of the people living in the terraced houses to tell their own visitors to park sensibly.

[Fallon]

Pica-Pica said:

‘We’ residents, not ‘us’ residents!
Anyhow, lucky she is not in a tourist attraction area on a holiday weekend!
The issue with leaving access, is also leaving adequate sight-lines as well.
As far as I am aware anyway, blocking a vehicle in is illegal; blocking a vehicle out is not. Play that game for a while!

She has two means of accessing her property - it's not about 'blocking a vehicle'. No-one parks over her driveway. It's the pedestrian gate which gave rise to my question. I'm not about to go quoting chapter and verse of any description at her. It was more a point of interest as to whether there are any legalities involved in a person not being able to use their pedestrian means of access into/out of their property when they have an alternative means. I'm curious, that's all.

Oh, and thanks for the grammar picking.

[roadsmash]

Jesus Christ, what the world has come to.

[Countdown]

Fallon said:

She has two means of accessing her property - it's not about 'blocking a vehicle'. No-one parks over her driveway. It's the pedestrian gate which gave rise to my question. I'm not about to go quoting chapter and verse of any description at her. It was more a point of interest as to whether there are any legalities involved in a person not being able to use their pedestrian means of access into/out of their property when they have an alternative means. I'm curious, that's all.

Oh, and thanks for the grammar picking.

Are people actually parking so close to the pedestrian gate that a person cant get in or out (And therefore she has to use the main driveway gate to get in or out)?

I can see why that might be annoying tbh - the pedestrian gate is there so the owner doesn’t have to open the much larger vehicle gates to get in or out.

[Skellum]

Pish.
The gate will open inwards, so not prevented from opening.
Nobody (except perhaps white van man) will park really close to the gates to avoid the danger of scratches.
Home owner is unhappy at having scum from the terrace right outside.
Leaving notes on cars belonging to complete strangers, who you know won't care a jot, is the mark of a mental.

[PF62]

Fallon said:

Us residents don't block her gate; it's unsuspecting friends, visitors and trades/delivery people who get the note treatment. She'll even stick notes on cars which aren't, actually, 'blocking' the pedestrian gate, but are parked with what she judges to be part of their vehicle 'too close'.

Depends how close they park against the fence with the gate.

If they park four or five feet away from the fence with the gate, i.e. the equivalent of a footpath width, then notes are not deserved.

However if they park right up against it then they fully deserve the snotty note treatment for being morons.

[PorkInsider]

Countdown said:

Are people actually parking so close to the pedestrian gate that a person cant get in or out (And therefore she has to use the main driveway gate to get in or out)?

That's how I read it - no pavement between the vehicles and the gate so it doesn't matter that the gate opens inwards, she simply can't get through it as there is a vehicle up agains the opening.

[PF62]

PorkInsider said:

Countdown said:

Are people actually parking so close to the pedestrian gate that a person cant get in or out (And therefore she has to use the main driveway gate to get in or out)?

That's how I read it - no pavement between the vehicles and the gate so it doesn't matter that the gate opens inwards, she simply can't get through it as there is a vehicle up agains the opening.

If so a snotty note is the least the moron drivers who park there should expect.

[Vanordinaire]

Fallon said:

She has two means of accessing her property - it's not about 'blocking a vehicle'. No-one parks over her driveway....It was more a point of interest as to whether there are any legalities involved in a person not being able to use their pedestrian means of access into/out of their property when they have an alternative means.

And you'd be happy if someone parked across your front door because you've got a back door you can use instead?

[Fallon]

Countdown said:

Are people actually parking so close to the pedestrian gate that a person cant get in or out (And therefore she has to use the main driveway gate to get in or out)?

I can see why that might be annoying tbh - the pedestrian gate is there so the owner doesn’t have to open the much larger vehicle gates to get in or out.

No, you can't park right up against the gate as there's a raised flower bed either side which are technically 'on the road', but perhaps this is part of the property's boundary anyway.

I'm not getting into any discussion with the neighbour over it - and I'd probably be irritated if it was my house, too. My question - which a few replies appear to have chosen not to answer in favour of insinuating I'm spoiling for a row/deliberately parking over the neighbour's gate - was whether this particular means of pedestrian accesses actually confers any sort of legal right of egress/ingress.

Maybe I'm weird (we all are in some way), but I have an interest in land ownership and read a lot of stuff about how rights of way are affected by development (especially in the City of London). My curiosity in this instance kinda feeds into that.

[Fallon]

Vanordinaire said:

And you'd be happy if someone parked across your front door because you've got a back door you can use instead?

Of course not. I'm not suggesting the neighbour should 'be happy' about it either. I'm curious about things like this - interested in land ownership, rights of way, boundaries etc. I find ideas of 'ownership' (of anything, not just land) interesting because of the way they cause humans to behave and interact with each other.

Last week, I was obsessed with lemons, next week it'll be something else.

[PF62]

Fallon said:

#My question - which a few replies appear to have chosen not to answer in favour of insinuating I'm spoiling for a row/deliberately parking over the neighbour's gate - was whether this particular means of pedestrian accesses actually confers any sort of legal right of egress/ingress.

If you are looking for a legal answer, then I would suggest the strict legal position is that it isn't legal as it isn't legal to park anywhere on the road which isn't a parking space as you are blocking the highway.

Happy now.

[Fallon]

PF62 said:

If so a snotty note is the least the moron drivers who park there should expect.

You can't park right up against the gate as there are raised flower beds either side of it.