Ignorant parking help - what are my options?
Ignorant parking help - what are my options?
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Discussion

VladtheImpala

Original Poster:

142 posts

102 months

Thursday 15th September 2022
quotequote all
I live in a flat, we have a communal garage on the ground floor, the garage door is a shutter which is immediately on a public road.

There are probably 150 people in my building, 40+ cars in the garage when at capacity. It's not a small building.

Usually on a Sunday, the public road is full as the single yellow line parking restrictions aren't enforceable. Sometimes, someone ignorant/blind/selfish will park across the garage door, on the public road, meaning no one can leave or enter.

Last night, someone parked their enormous boring diesel Merc across the garage doors, at 6.30pm. The rest of the road was full, it was the only 'space' free for an unobvious reason to them. 30 minutes later, around 20 people were outside, waiting to get in the garage having finished work. There are young couples, NHS workers including a surgeon who is on call at all times, entire families etc who live here. People were angry.

The management company of the building can't do anything for us cos it's a public road. They generally can't do anything for us inside the building. Cheers Zenith, there's no point to you.

I rang the council, offices closed of course with no option for alternative help other than some online form which just goes in to the bin, and is useless in an emergency anyway.

I rang 101 and explained the situation. The police call centre lady who answered said it was a fairly common thing to call in about, and they couldn't do anything either as it's such a low priority/not a crime.

So after an hour of fannying around, I was able to achieve nothing.

What's worse, the Mercedes people were two little, gym rat, aftermarket AMG badges, baseball cap on backwards self-important scumbag racist chavs, which we found out when they returned two hours later after having been to the pub. Charming lads, middle fingers, spitting, racist towards my neighbours who were all waiting outside.

I'm hoping that I simply don't know what I could have done to get that car moved. I can't believe there's no option for this circumstance, in the UK in 2022.

Anyone got any advice so people who deserve a reminder that they're not special can get one?

normalbloke

8,492 posts

242 months

Thursday 15th September 2022
quotequote all
Move.

E63eeeeee...

5,766 posts

72 months

Thursday 15th September 2022
quotequote all
It takes surprisingly few people working together to move a car. There's probably YouTube videos on the technique.

PurpleTurtle

8,656 posts

167 months

Thursday 15th September 2022
quotequote all
I can't help, but get this: my immediate neighbour is a sacked ex-copper who regards a particular space outside his house in our restriction free road as 'his'. It is not.

I parked in it overnight, the next day he reported me to the Police force that sacked him and (because the local Sgt is still his mate) I had the neighbourhood PC on the phone within 48hrs asking me not to park in this bloke's 'allocated space'.

It isn't allocated to him, it's a regular cul-de-sac with no markings.

I am understandably livid, given that said Police force says on its website "Parking, jog on and bother the Council" (I paraphrase)

Yet here you are, an Average Joe, the Police tell you to do one.


mmm-five

12,094 posts

307 months

Thursday 15th September 2022
quotequote all
Call the police to say you think the car is going to be set alight or have its tyres slashed.

Or with 20-40 people waiting for it to move, simply manhandle it out of the way, then slash the tyres and set it on fire.

Alternatively, go passive-aggressive and stick some of the really-hard-to-remove stickers on the windscreen printed with your grievances!



Edited by mmm-five on Thursday 15th September 13:53

Durzel

12,966 posts

191 months

Thursday 15th September 2022
quotequote all
My takeaway is that I've never seen two people wearing aftermarket AMG badges before.

It seems like an impressively useless setup that a 40+ car garage has an entrance that has no double yellow lines prohibiting parking across the entrance 24/7.

Beyond that - that many people - surely one of you could have dragged it out of the way? Police would do something if it was blocking the main road, and if you actually managed to get them down there might be more sympathetic to the obvious problem and how many people it was inconveniencing.

Far Cough

2,475 posts

191 months

Thursday 15th September 2022
quotequote all
Paint the road to make it obvious its a no parking zone , put up signs on the roller shutter that are obvious when it is shut. Place cones in the road to reinforce the above. Failing that , have a block whip round and buy some vehicle skates to allow any offending car to be moved.

Muzzer79

12,679 posts

210 months

Thursday 15th September 2022
quotequote all
Far Cough said:
Paint the road to make it obvious its a no parking zone , put up signs on the roller shutter that are obvious when it is shut. Place cones in the road to reinforce the above. Failing that , have a block whip round and buy some vehicle skates to allow any offending car to be moved.
This

Smiljan

12,243 posts

220 months

Thursday 15th September 2022
quotequote all
Are you telling us 20 people waited in their cars for 2 hours when they could have just got together and moved the merc out of the way? Crazy.

Fozziebear

1,840 posts

163 months

Thursday 15th September 2022
quotequote all
PurpleTurtle said:
I can't help, but get this: my immediate neighbour is a sacked ex-copper who regards a particular space outside his house in our restriction free road as 'his'. It is not.

I parked in it overnight, the next day he reported me to the Police force that sacked him and (because the local Sgt is still his mate) I had the neighbourhood PC on the phone within 48hrs asking me not to park in this bloke's 'allocated space'.

It isn't allocated to him, it's a regular cul-de-sac with no markings.

I am understandably livid, given that said Police force says on its website "Parking, jog on and bother the Council" (I paraphrase)

Yet here you are, an Average Joe, the Police tell you to do one.
id be lodging a complaint with police regarding the call, that's a seriously out of line, I've got to be honest I would of told whoever had called me to jog on.

scorcher

4,099 posts

257 months

Thursday 15th September 2022
quotequote all
Bounce them out the way, get some MaccyD’s trays un the wheels and drag it down the road.
Put a big sign on the door and get some line paint and put your own double yellows down.

VladtheImpala

Original Poster:

142 posts

102 months

Thursday 15th September 2022
quotequote all
normalbloke said:
Move.
ha

Cold

16,414 posts

113 months

Thursday 15th September 2022
quotequote all
Get the apartment residents to club together and purchase four of these from Machine Mart at £144 each for any future parking difficulties.



VladtheImpala

Original Poster:

142 posts

102 months

Thursday 15th September 2022
quotequote all
Far Cough said:
Paint the road to make it obvious its a no parking zone , put up signs on the roller shutter that are obvious when it is shut. Place cones in the road to reinforce the above. Failing that , have a block whip round and buy some vehicle skates to allow any offending car to be moved.
I did think of vehicle skates. Can I get in trouble for using them?

VladtheImpala

Original Poster:

142 posts

102 months

Thursday 15th September 2022
quotequote all
Smiljan said:
Are you telling us 20 people waited in their cars for 2 hours when they could have just got together and moved the merc out of the way? Crazy.
It was an eclectic group of people, including children. I suggested it, no one was willing.

Far Cough

2,475 posts

191 months

Thursday 15th September 2022
quotequote all
VladtheImpala said:
I did think of vehicle skates. Can I get in trouble for using them?
Nope ..... so long as you dont use them to play bumper cars !!!

Squadrone Rosso

3,591 posts

170 months

Thursday 15th September 2022
quotequote all
Face mask & a liberal application of brake fluidsmile

Getragdogleg

9,863 posts

206 months

Thursday 15th September 2022
quotequote all
Are you handy enough to take on two gym rat chavs when they spot you moving their car?

If not leave alone.

If you move it the police will suddenly find time to do you for something if the rats report you.

VladtheImpala

Original Poster:

142 posts

102 months

Thursday 15th September 2022
quotequote all
Far Cough said:
Nope ..... so long as you dont use them to play bumper cars !!!
ladies and gentlemen, we have a solution!

Getragdogleg

9,863 posts

206 months

Thursday 15th September 2022
quotequote all
Are you handy enough to take on two gym rat chavs when they spot you moving their car?

If not leave alone.

If you move it the police will suddenly find time to do you for something if the rats report you.