People parking on council grass verges

[Participant]

Hi all

There's a care home next door to our house and visitors frequently park on the grass verge, blocking the pavement and turning the verge into a churned up mud pit, especially at this time of year.



Cars parked there also make it hard for walkers, wheelchairs, prams etc. to get past and I've watched mothers with babies having to go onto the road to pass cars on the pavement. It enrages me somewhat that people feel they can park on pavements in such a way.

I'm after opinions as to what I can and should do next, if anything.

The care home owners have, as you can see, placed plant pots in a line from their boundary, completely understandable as just out of shot to the left behind the hedge it is basically a trench of tyre track puddles. This has however pushed the problem towards the verge outside our property.

So do I put rocks there, contact the council, leave arsey notes on the windscreens, or simply suck it up and do nothing?

 

[Participant]

Thanks for the reply. My concern with the rocks solution is - if someone drives over a rock I've placed there and damages their car, am I not opening myself up for civil suits? It's not my land so I have no right to place items on it.

It's sort of near Studley. Message me if you want details, as I don't want to say exactly where.

 

[Participant]

Cheers all. Hunting for suitable rocks as we speak.

As well as whatever you do to the grass, I'd suggest asking the care home to ask visitors to not park in a way which blocks pavements. Do they not have any parking of their own, or is it insufficient?

Already done. The owner is a very nice guy that fully understood the problem, since it is their verge that gets chopped up the most. He said he asks staff to mention it to visitors, but people don't pay attention.

Funny thing is the plant pots have already been unsuccessful, as someone last night just mounted the verge from the other side.

Regarding the car park, the really stupid thing is that there are always loads of free spaces in front of the nursing home (they've paved over the whole front), yet people still seem to choose to park on the verge. The other day someone got slightly stuck and wheel spun for a few seconds to get out, deepening the tyre marks further.

I'm trying to not get too territorial about it since it's not my land, but it just makes the whole frontage look crap and it will take ages to repair the tyre marks. I mow that verge myself for the same reason, even though it's not my job to. I'm sure that if I put rocks there someone will report it to the council in about five minutes, but I might as well give it a crack.

 

[Participant]

We had similar near our house, in winter last year it made a proper mess so after a load of moaning to the council from us and neighbors they cemented in 2ftish tall wooden beams standing up right in a wavy pattern all the way along the paths edge, looks really nice however the cars just now park right up against the wooden beams and don't park on the grass.. so didn't really solve anything lol

If they don't park on the grass then surely it solved the messy grass problem?

Sounds good though.