Douchebag parking - actions?

[hughtrimble]

Afternoon,

There's a Merc that keeps being parked not in a parking bay, but in front of the bays and blocking neighbours' cars in. Only happens on Sundays, and from speaking with neighbours they do not appear to be visiting any residents here.

It's at weekends so no parking enforcement and it's not a public highway as it's estate parking. No luck yet seeing the person responsible to ask them how they can be so douchey.

What can be done about this?

 

[hughtrimble]

Blimey that's a lot of suggestions! Thank you all.

 

[hughtrimble]

Park behind and block them in until they finally find you and you can tell them to stop being a ****?

You should all block the car in, Police Interceptors TPAC styleeeee.

This. Make sure to answer the door with a beer in hand "sorry mate, had too many, you'll have to come back tomorrow"

Block the car in?

Don't block the car in. There are a lot of unpredictable crazies out there, and they tend to park like that.

Just block them in and wait for the door knock.

I have certainly considered blocking too, but then I'd be blocking another neighbour's drive. Plus as Scuzi notes, I have a feeling (judging by how inconsiderate they are) that this person might be an absolute bell and thus damage to my car may ensue.

I do very much like the idea of answering the door to them and being in an unfit state to move it though...

 

[hughtrimble]

Take the spot the night before for a couple of weekends

The thing is this isn't a spot that they're in. There is almost always a free proper space next to the car they've blocked in, but they clearly see themselves/their car as too good to park in it.

 

[hughtrimble]

Only happens on a Sunday? Priest touring the parish? I'd hang about and give them a sermon on parking.

Actually this is a good call. There is a very busy church down the road where everything gets congested because they seem to think it's OK to park on pavements, on corners and generally wherever they like. The strange thing though is that we're far enough away that this one is driving past many more open spaces just to park here. Perhaps they're trying to avoid the rest of the congregation.

 

[hughtrimble]

If you can't get a hold of the driver in person, leave a firm but polite note on their windscreen asking them to park more considerately. If it happens again afterwards, leave a less polite note on the windscreen, but instead of putting it under the wiper, stick it on with lots of Pritt Stick.

Polite note first time, but I'd be wanting to find out who they were visiting as it's easier to talk to a neighbour than a visitor tbh.

Start with polite note, then poop in letter box air intake?

You could leave a note, but I doubt the person who parks like this take any notice of it.
The car is taxed and has a current MOT, so I doubt the police will be interested in helping.

Start with a note then if that doesn't work. Take a power drill to their tyres.

Gradual escalation each week.

Polite note.
Cone on roof.
Bread on bonet for pigeons, as suggested above.

Try leaving a note if it's a regular thing?

Either a note or just go straight to the police next time as suggested.

Have previously left a note and found it tossed into a bush (they don't seem the sort to take their rubbish away with them regardless).

I'll do so again and be somewhat more blunt about the safety aspects of what they're doing.

 

[hughtrimble]

It may be on a private estate, but IIRC it is/was considered a minor offence to block access to the Queen's Kings Highway, and the police could/would used to be able to contact the registered keepers of vehicles that were parked blocking people's drives, so that may be something to look into (obviously the non emergency number). They probably don't do that anymore, but going back I remember my father ringing the local station as some pillock had parked blocking his shared drive preventing 5 houses from being able to pull their cars out including two that did early shifts, apparently the police managed to find a contact for the registered keeper as at about 4:30am someone did move it about 20 meters to an open spot on the road.

From memory and some of the past threads the old go to was something along the lines of slip the local rugby club members a few pints to assist in moving it, or put it on wheel trolleys and move it so the owner has a real problem getting it out.

AFAIK, but take with a pinch of salt, if they're obstructing you from accessing the public highway then it's a police issue.

I seem to recall when there was talk of scam parking companies for airport users parking their cars on other peoples driveways, it was made very clear that you could not block the car in with another one as the owner of the house would get in **** for it.

I know around our way the PCSOs/community police or whoever they are have given us an email address or two to contact them, maybe see if there's something similar and ping them an email.

That is my understanding, and IIRC it doesn't matter if the blockage is on private land as long as that land has "public access", as the Road Traffic act for some things applies to privately owned land if there is nothing stopping people from using it.

Hence the reason you can be done for driving without insurance/licence if you're in say a Tesco car park, and some interesting case law regarding farmland as basically a famers field is private and you don't need a driving licence/insurance etc if it's gated, but the moment you allow the public general access for say a car boot or other event it become "public" for the duration - one of the defining cases involved a farmers son who was driving something at one end of a field were a car boot was being held.

Besides that, I've had success in having the police/pcso inform the owner that obstructing access to the public highway is a criminal offence (car was blocked in). Though it was a fairly small village and they probably enjoyed having something to do. Not sure you'd have much success in an overwhelmed police force (which is probably all of them these days).

Either a note or just go straight to the police next time as suggested.

Mate of mine thought his car had been stolen from outside his house. He was even more furious when he found out what had actually happened. Due to congestion in the road he had parked partially blocking his neighbour's drive, assuming the neighbour would knock on his door if he needed it moved. Instead the neighbour called the police and the car was promptly towed away. He had to go and pick it up and pay a charge as well.

I will look into this further, thank you all - I had assumed the police couldn't get involved, but shall find out and will use the non emergency number next time it happens (which may well be tomorrow).

They are clearly a grade A berk.

 

[hughtrimble]

The car is taxed and has a current MOT, so I doubt the police will be interested in helping.
Are there any signs indicating that it is private parking in that area?

Thank you for checking that. And yes there are signs, but no enforcement on Sundays. They're not even in a bay though, so the driver doesn't care that they aren't a resident, and also doesn't care that they're not even in a bay.

 

[hughtrimble]

Loaf of bread, break up into pieces, sprinkle liberally over the car....hilarity ensues. Repeat every Sunday until douchebag gets the message.

Bread or bird seed.

Rub some avocado all over the windscreen.

These are lovely, wildlife-friendly and biodegradable approaches

 

[hughtrimble]

All giddy at the prospect of an update today

Frantically pressing refresh waiting to see what happens today

No update for today yet ?

Apologies for the hefty anticlimax! Unplanned had to go out all day early morning and only just back, so absolutely nothing to report. Let down of the highest order, I do apologise.

 

[hughtrimble]

Buy the cheapest car you can find.

Ask your neighbour with the Nissan if they can park somewhere else on Saturday evening.

On Sunday if they park in the bay then stick the cheap car right in front as they do.

how long has been going on for ?
if a few weekends already, i would have contacted the police already !

I'm surprised your neighbour hasn't done so already, its his car that's blocked in, i assume he doesn't need to use it at the weekends then ? on the off chance he NEEDS it, and cant get it out then what ?

contact the police 101

you could park there before he returns again next time?

Absolutely no idea why they haven't done anything (at least openly...) either. The Nissan is very often there for days on end, so I suspect rarely used. I could certainly park in the bay and then get blocked in, which would give me more traction with the police when this happens again.

I can't really park there before they return, because it's not an actual bay, it's the driveway between the actual bays (where the Toyota is) and the individual house bays on the right.

After today's anticlimax of having been out all day, I'll see if it happened again. There's a brilliant curtain twitching neighbour who will know, and who often remonstrates with people behaving like berks, so I shall find out.

 

[hughtrimble]

Ban

Edit:

Yes very poor show on my part. I intentionally started this thread yesterday so that I'd have some tips to deploy today, but then hefty let down having to drive 120 miles to pick up something the missus had bought...

 

[hughtrimble]

Buy nappy, fill with Nutella or if you’re so inclined put it on then **** yourself. Finally, place it on the windscreen, making sure to adequately smear.

I'm trying to picture how they'd work out it's Nutella without engaging with the contents in a rather 'manual' way. It's a very entertaining picture.

 

[hughtrimble]

Moving house provides an income for estate agents, moving companies and might cause a surge in local house prices!

Food for thought

All jesting aside, I'll not ever be buying somewhere that has this kind of parking again. Whilst the issues are few and far between, it is such a massive faff when you've got to deal with the great inconsiderates. Though I suppose people will be arses wherever, including parking in front of dropped kerb driveways.

 

[hughtrimble]

Shrink wrap the car next time he parks there.

Either that, or put a potato up the exhaust in such a way that you can’t see it, and it blocks the exhaust.
The car will have problems starting.

I like this idea, all you need is £5 worth of cling film and a couple of bored kids

Most modern cars don’t have lock barrels.

Shrink wrap is annoying to remove. Potato will stop the car from starting, but is easy to remove.
Neither cause damage to the car, which could get you in trouble.

The clingfilm idea is a very good and innocuous one. If I can't speak to the utter knuckle who parks like this, clingfilming with one of those massive Kirkland rolls with a note beneath might do the trick and has zero risk of damage unlike the gluing etc.

 

[hughtrimble]

Controversial opinion: from that picture it looks like there's plenty of room for the cars to get out.

I suppose it's private parking so you could put a cone out or put up a no parking sign.

It doesn’t look like it for the Nissan, not without a billion point turn anyway.

If there's a wall behind it, that would make fun.

I can see why you might think so but the Nissan is in a bay walled on three sides. The Merc didn't leave enough space for the Nissan to get out in the photo, though has done before by parking a little further over towards the 'right' (but then it's even tighter for the neighbour on the right). Shame it's not a banger of a Nissan as I can imagine some folks scraping out to make a point.