Help - Council Trying To Stop Me Parking My Cars On My Drive

[rumpelstiltskin]

What to do is give up being a good hard-working guy,start to kill next door's cats,assault your neighbour with a four foot solid wooden baton in broad daylight,leave a bin deliberatly full of rotting gutted fish outside neighbours door for two weeks!,play thrash metal music all day,take into consideration you're just out of prison for murder!This in the eyes of the council will then qualify you to do what in the hell you want!!!Well it did with my ex-neighbour and 'i' was at the end of the assault(and everything else),but to bring this more in line with your point,'he' also had a 13 foot caravan in his drive,a 16 foot boat in his front garden,two ginormous(yellow) tractor wheels in front of his house,four quad bikes in drive,three motorbikes in drive,a 10 foot trailer in drive,a jeep in drive,a 10 foot boat and a huge pile of junk metal!Tell the Council they are a*holes,or email me and 'i'll'tell them they are a*holes,i'll tell them exactly what my neighbour done and to leave you to f*ck alone!!There,now breeeeaaattthhhh,good luck whatever!

Edited by rumpelstiltskin on Thursday 3rd August 12:11

[redgriff500]

I know... but if they picked on him they might get hurt...

Currently I'm too nice...

But hey a few more hassles and I might be scouring the internet for the 'bomb makers cookbook'.

If I get myself on the 'Terrorist Threat' list they might just leave me alone...

Or shoot me 5 times in the head as I get on the tube.

Hmm... I might have to rethink that.

Edited by redgriff500 on Thursday 3rd August 12:24

[Twincam16]

Actually, this reminds me of the legislation (thankfully blocked) that some idiot or other was trying to bring in a few years ago.

Basically, they wanted to give the council the power to tow away cars they deemed to be 'eyesores', and I'm not talking Laxxer wagons - I mean restoration projects.

Seriously, they were trying to alter the SORN to say that the car in question had to be roadworthy, which meant that if you were stripping down and rebuilding a classic car and didn't happen to have a garage the size of a house to do it in, they'd wait till you were on holiday and tow it away. If it was on Brainstorm's patch he'd probably do it for fun.

How can they do that even on environmental grounds? I mean, the car's not even running?!

I hope you tell 'em where to stuff it, Redgriff.

[LRdriver II]

in the US its a developers thing not the council that restrict the amount of cars on the drive. Reason being that they dont want clutter with 4 cars (typical family with teenage kids),a 50foot AAAARRRREE-VEEEEEE (Mobile home), a Bass boat(fishing boat) on trailer and the multitude of recreashunal vee-hick-eels that the surburbanite yank manages to accumulate.
Quite right to..
Tis funny though..the UK seems to be filled with hypocrites, bitch when somebody blights the landscape yet demands to do what ever they want on their land with complete disregard of their fellow neighbours.

[pjskel]

redgriff500 said:

I refer you to our previous conversation, I have spoken on several occasions to my nearest neighbours and they have all confirmed that they do not have an issue with my cars.
If there has been any complaint lodged, I would request you provide full details of said complaints.
I am unaware of any law that restricts the number of vehicles an individual is entitled to own or park upon his own property - but if such legislation exists, please forward me the relevant information for my perusal.

You mentioned ‘Car Storage’ how does this differ from ‘Car Parking’? Could you please supply a legal definition relevant to the issue at hand.

I can confirm that I own the cars parked on my drive. All the cars at my property have a current MOT, all are currently insured, and all have been taxed at some stage this year when I use them and SORNed when I do not.
I have two P100 pick ups and a Mercedes Sprinter van, which I use in the course of my employment, and personal use.

I am very concerned by your request for details of my mortgage - that is a private financial arrangement between myself and my lender, and I am not aware of any legal requirement to furnish such information. I believe your request contravenes the Data Protection Act, and welcome information of the statute under which you believe you are entitled to such information.

I trust this answers your queries but if I can be of any further assistance please feel free to contact me.

This is the version I'd send them - not too confrontational and shows there's been more than a second thought given to their previous correspondence.
Hope you get to the bottom of it.

I'd also ask your neighbours, and not just the next door ones if they really have no objections, and if you could quote them as such in any further correspondence.
That way, you'll have the ammunition to counter any argument over complaints lodged.

I personally wouldn't have mentioned the tax and SORN stuff - bugger all to do with the council, that's a DVLA matter, and I'd guess they already have checked with them as to what vehicle taxing has been done.

I wonder if it is a case of the 25% discount for single occupancy or they suspect auto trade sales. It's hard to know until you get the next letter with more bones on the meat.
If the reply is still as vague, then call them on it including the names of those neighbours who unequivocally had no issue over the amount of vehicles in your driveway.

[vladd]

morebeanz said:

Am I the only one that thinks it's a reasonable request by the council?

I'm partly with you. It has been shown that people with lots of cars on their drives, especially if they are wrecks (which I know they're not in this case) can have a detrimental effect on house prices. I don't think it has anything to do with the council, but I can understand why the neighbours might be a bit upset.

If I were you I'd tell the council that you don't think you're doing anything wrong, but you understand the opinions of your neighbours. You're dissapointed that the neigbours didn't speak directly to you, but that if someone wants to pay for some secure storage for you somewhere, then you'll limit your drive to two or three cars at a time, in the spirit of being neighbourly.

Then I'd compain about one of your neighbours having too many kids and ask if they can have have some at home, some in care and rotate them on a weekly basis. :-)

[redgriff500]

Exactly, I would understand if I brought my Manta and sierra projects up here as they look abandoned...

But I bought a wreck of a house and spent £40k on it... my next door neighbours is falling down (they have had complaints about it) but I think live and let live.

I had a copper around the other night as some kids had damaged my van and when some cars went by with load exhausts and stereos she asked if I wanted to make a complaint.

NO... we all did it when we were young and dumb.

What happened to tolerence... and how much is really needed in this case ?

[pdV6]

LRdriver II said:

Tis funny though..the UK seems to be filled with hypocrites, bitch when somebody blights the landscape yet demands to do what ever they want on their land with complete disregard of their fellow neighbours.

Think you'll find the OP states that the neighbours are ok with it.
Besides, the cars are all runners so what's the problem?

[LRdriver II]

pdV6 said:

LRdriver II said:

Tis funny though..the UK seems to be filled with hypocrites, bitch when somebody blights the landscape yet demands to do what ever they want on their land with complete disregard of their fellow neighbours.

Think you'll find the OP states that the neighbours are ok with it.
Besides, the cars are all runners so what's the problem?

Yea.. I know, it was more a general observation regarding behaviour here. I remember a thread here a few years ago with somebody complaining about a neighbour having work vans parked everywhere. we were all up in arms about that and advice was given to complain to the council and keep it amicable but complain discretely.. If Redgriffs driveway is large enough and the cars dont look like crap, then so what.IHMO. Humankind are still sneaky buggers and will smile at you and dagger you in the back when you turn around.

Its all about compromise living together in this festering over-populated melting pot of society. Its just annoying when the jobsworth gets involved and wastes everybodies time with stuff that can be sorted with a friendly chat.

[Stubby Pete]

Why don't you just park all the taxed cars on the road near(ish) to you house and leave the untaxed ones on the drive?

I know it will annoy the neighbours but the council can't complain if you have three cars on your drive surely? Furthermore, with the DPA, officially they would be unable to obtain details of the registered keeper without due cause. They are not the Police.

[redgriff500]

That's what I might have to do...

But that's hassle to me AND my nieghbours and you can bet they'd moan about that !

In fact around here where no one parks on the road (all have drives capable of taking 4 or more cars) I think I'd be annoyed if someone regularly parked outside my house...

still wouldn't call the council though.

Regarding vans, I agree they can look out of place so I park them in a line alongside my house (double drive) so they are hardly noticeable... I'm a reasonable guy trying to do what I can.

[Stubby Pete]

How about this




No planning required as temporary structure!!

[redgriff500]

It might be worth a try !

;o)

[alfaman]

Twincam16 said:

Actually, this reminds me of the legislation (thankfully blocked) that some idiot or other was trying to bring in a few years ago.

Basically, they wanted to give the council the power to tow away cars they deemed to be 'eyesores', and I'm not talking Laxxer wagons - I mean restoration projects.

.

hmmmm ...... I do have some sympathy with the council on that ..... where exactly do you draw the line between someone tidily doing a single restoration job alongside their house ....... and a front drive and rear garden full of wrecks "being restored" ?......(over a period of seventy twelve years ? )

A house round the corner from me used to have 6 wrecks in his rear garden , that must have been a lovely view out of his neighbours rear window , whose house was probably worth less as a result .

[pentoman]

thread worthless without pics etc

[Beefmeister]

I wouldn't say its worthless, but i'd certainly like to see a pic of the 'offending' cars etc, if only to see a pic of your fettled MX-5's!!

[redgriff500]

pentoman said:

thread worthless without pics etc

Not really as I'm asking what is my / their legal situation.

However to show how resonable I am, hopefully there is one below :



Note this is taken from the worst angle... building work isn't complete... front wall to go up etc.

Most people would never see the van, I own the trees (which I want to take down) then there's a road as I'm a corner plot.

Here is what most would see:

Edited by redgriff500 on Thursday 3rd August 15:22

Edited by redgriff500 on Thursday 3rd August 15:30

[dr bob]

so...
...you think Mx5s look good in blue?

CH

[redgriff500]

Beefmeister said:

I wouldn't say its worthless, but i'd certainly like to see a pic of the 'offending' cars etc, if only to see a pic of your fettled MX-5's!!

Well a couple here but they arent of the best 2:

[redgriff500]

Here is what it looked like a year ago :

Been vacent for 5 years... smashed windows ...



When I cut the trees down they all loved me... for about 5 minutes !