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Advice on noisy neighbours in the garden

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  • Parking has been progressively a problem since the car was invented.

    I can remember at the age of seventeen when had my first car in 1958, regularly driving from my home, on a Sunday morning along along a road of terraced houses to the local park to meet up with friends when there were hardly any cars parked in the road. Forty-odd years later when I made the "nostalgia trip" on a Sunday, there were cars parked nose to tail both sides of the road and if you met a car coming the other way it was almost impossible to pass, unless there was a gap.

    Our houses on this small estate were built in 1965. The road is quite narrow (20mph limit and speed humps). They're mostly semis and each have a drive up to a garage where it would be able to park at least three cars on it.
    Over time many people have had side extensions since they were permitted, so there's only room to park one car now on the drive, unless they pave over the small front garden when they can park two plus one on the drive. But so many residents with two cars who've still got a front garden and still can get more than one car on their drive, park one there and one in the road, as it's too much bother to move one to get the other out.
    So we've a road with many cars parked "two heels up on the pavement" both sides of the road.

    It is actually an offence to  park, "two wheels up."

    It also makes it difficult for mothers with push chairs to pass them particularly if the house has overgrown hedges protruding into the same space. Over time the pavement which was regular large paving slabs have stopped being replaced by the council and have been vhanged to  tarmac, as the weight of the cars parked half on the slabs  were cracking them and they were becoming a trip hazzard.

    At one time the Fire Brigade would bring one of their trucks down the road to make people shift them, as they couldn't pass if two cars were parked opposite to each other,  because they would be a danger in an emergency, but they've not bothered for years.

    Local councils make a fortune from parking charges. Our youngest son and his partner used to have a Victorian house on a busy, but wide main road. There had been room for cars to be parked on either side of the road, (not "two whees up on the kerb") leaving plenty of space for buses to pass each other. But the council made them start  paying  for a permit to park outside of their house, so they eventually moved.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    At our previous address all residents on one side of the street in our area were asked by the police and City Council to park 'two wheels up' as only then could the fire engines and ambulances travel along the street. 

    The pavement on the west side of the street (the side the corner shop was on) was left unobstructed so that there was room for pedestrians, buggies, wheelchairs etc ... although to be fair there was so little traffic along there (except at school time) most folk walked along the centre of the road. 

    Every so often, as you say @Doghouse Riley, a  fire engine would drive along the neighbourhood streets to ensure that they could get along .(I saw it happening a few weeks ago when I was in that area) ... if cars were not parked 'two up' along the east side a note from the Fire Service was left on the windscreen requesting that in future they did as others did on that side of the road.  New residents had the procedure explained to them by neighbours and I never knew of anyone who refused to co-operate ... even the most truculent of law students who lived next door to us for a while, did as they were asked.  I think there was always the thought that if the fire engine needed to make a point  cars that were not 'two up' and consequently obstructing the fire engine might end up with a red scrape along the side panels  ;)



    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • I think different authorities have their own interpretation of the rules.

    A former Chief Constable of Manchester a couple of decades or so ago, was on record as  saying, "Any car parked on a road is causing an obstruction." The enforcement of this I guess would only have been for serious obstructions.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Think it’s called ‘pragmatism’ @Doghouse Riley 😉 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016


    It is actually an offence to  park, "two wheels up."



    Other than in London that's not generally true.  It is an offence to drive on the pavement but the offence must be witnesses in order to prosecute.  Simply having car parked on the pavement does not constitute an offence.  Possibly crazy as the only way to get a car onto the pavement is to drive it (unless you are strong enough to carry it there), but that is the law as it stands.
    Obstructing the pavement is another matter, but even that is open to interpretation.  Local authorities can have their own rules, but there is not a blanket ban.
  • Doghouse RileyDoghouse Riley Posts: 347
    edited October 2021
    The point I was making was that a car "two wheels up on the pavement," certainly here in Manchester, can be deemed as causing an obstruction, so the owner can be prosecuted should the police wish to do so. The actual legal technicalities are neither here nor there in the circumstances.  It doesn't matter if it's under the Road Traffic Act or a local byelaw, it can be considered a prosecutable offence.

    A woman who used to live  on our road until a couple of years ago, never put her car "two wheels up on the pavement," but parked it close to the kerb.
    She was the only one on our road to do so.
    She was a serving police officer.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    KT53 said:
    Plus they thought the space outside my house was a parking space for one of their three cars!

    Unfortunately for you the space outside your house is a parking space for their car, or anybody else's car assuming it's taxed and insured and the space outside the house is a public highway. 

    Not if there is a driveway. AFAIU, nobody is allowed to block a driveway, not even the owner of the driveway. They issue tickets for that by me.

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    She may have had a healthy respect for the condition of her tyre walls and alloys. 

    At the time I parked ‘two up’ I was in the employ of the local authority which was instructing me to do that, and driving their ‘lease car’.  

    I’d hesitate to do it every day in my current ‘own car’. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    It might not be the public road @Plantminded 's talking about. We have 'parking areas' for our cars, which are on our property - pretty much the same as a driveway.  Some people have a garage or carport. Terraced houses.  :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • Doghouse RileyDoghouse Riley Posts: 347
    edited October 2021
    She may have had a healthy respect for the condition of her tyre walls and alloys. 

    At the time I parked ‘two up’ I was in the employ of the local authority which was instructing me to do that, and driving their ‘lease car’.  

    I’d hesitate to do it every day in my current ‘own car’. 

    She'd have had less chance of scuffing the rims of her low profile tyred alloys on her Mercedes if she ran it up the lowered kerb in front of her drive to park with two wheels up on the pavement as some of  the neighbours do. Not "bump it up the kerb."
    Who does that?

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