This concerns the previous address I used to live at. The area is a residential area designed for residential parking only. On the road is a Church and a hall that used to be owned by the Church but since sold off and now rented out. The current occupiers run a karate club from the hall as a commercial operation (i.e. its not council/community funded). As a result, when the club opens for business, the road is jam packed with traffic. The consequences of this:
- Some very close calls with kids nearly being run over (this is what started the complaints). This is when cars are crossing/reversing on the dropped kerb
- Cars parked on the pavement and right up the end of the roads. As the roads are narrow, it makes it difficult to turn in or out of the road
- Residents being forced to reverse out onto the main road as cars leave the club
- Scrapes and bumps to residents cars
- The club owners being abusive to residents and most likely vice versa in some instances
- Traffic is constanly on the increase as the club expands
The residents have complained several times to the police individually and each time the club owner has implied that the resident has been swearing and generally abusive. So the police have ended up warning the resident each time. Fortunately last time the police was called and the owner said the resident has been abusive, there were witnesses and the police have started to take a dim view with the club owner. However, there isn't anything else the police have done, other than tell the residents to phone 101 and they will issue tickets to any cars not parked accordingly to the law which is all that they can do. As its non emergency, by the time the police turn up, the club session has ended.
The residents have tried speaking to the owner and initially there was some success. However, as his club has grown he's doesn't car about the parking situation. In fact, through advertising the residents reckon his club as grown three times the size it was initially. As the hall that he rents used to be rented by the Mencap charity, the council dropped the kerb to make access easier to the hall for the disabled. There was no issues as the charity was happy to share their parking spaces with the residents. This gives capacity for 5 parking spaces for the hall which is no where near. The owner will object to any cars parking there overnight and legally no one is allowed to park on a dropped kerb (although he painted the white line himself!). The dropped kerb takes up a significant part of the road. The other thing he did was cut down two grand oak trees to make more parking space. These trees had tree preservation orders and were cut down illegally. The only action the council took was to force him to replant new ones.
So today I went down to visit my ex-neighbour who sadly only has months to live. As I turned downhill into the road (on my motorbike), I was faced with an avalanche of traffic leaving from the club. There were cars parked on both sides (including the pavement), leaving no passing room. The person in the car coming up the hill expected me to reverse! It took a while to resolve with the residents coming out and having a right go at the members of the club. Pity I didn't have my helmet cam with me.
All the residents are pretty much pissed off and they, as individuals, have made complaints to the police and its not surprising that they are still in the same situation. As I found out that one of the kids nearly got knocked over earlier and as one of the drivers made the mistake of saying to me "I pay my taxes, its my road as well so fuck you", I've decided to assist the residents by bringing them together and applying pressure at the correct level to get this issue resolved
So I'm planning on engaging the following areas by getting a strongly worded pertition signed by all residents on the affected roads and following up with face to face meetings.
1. the local concillors who are aware of the situation but have done f'all about it as they are appeasing the individuals by saying they'll do something. Knowing that there is a full community behind the actions should get them moving.
2. the police at the community level, not the individual officer
3. highways
4. the council on a) having a commercial organisation in a residential area without adequate traffic management, b) to see if the club is paying the relevant rates pertaining to a business, c) on reducing or eliminating the the drop kerb, thus allowing residents to park.
5. the local paper
6. the landlord
7. and the local MP
I also intend to look at the deeds of the property and see what covenants are in place as well as the land boundries. The residents are extremely fed up but haven't realised that as a group they will get more accomplished.
I assume some of you may come accross this situation more than once in your daily jobs, so is there any advice you can give? At the moment I'm putting an action plan together and one of the things I've asked the residents to do is start taking evidence in the form of pics/videos, and secondly to start leafleting the members to see if that will alter any behaviour.
I've sent you a PM.
hi Asif also do a Traffic count
get some video footage,
consider a direct action aproach, get all the residents to park their cars near the venue with gaps that takes up space
1 or 2 male residents to be on duty wearing high viz looking a bit official , It may look official enough to scare off bad parking. there was a programme on the othernight about a local resident near a school who solved a similar problem buy being around with his high viz and a clip board and approaching vehicles and asking them to move on.
get the vests marked up with something "community support "
investigate everything you can think off to undermine the legal operation of the karate club itself, planning permission on the usage of the building, the commercial rates paid , any health and safety issues , try and find a reason for the business not being allowed to be there.. Lobby the actujal owners of the building.
just some ideas
yup, so monitoring the traffic levels is another good idea and is the high vis vests of which I have plenty.
I'm also thinking of going down the social media route. They have Facebook pages etc onto which we can post highlighting the problem they are causing.
I think the biggest issue is health and safety and once the council have been made aware, they know the floodgate will open with claims should anything arise.
This scenario perhaps just typifies the standard of general :asshole: the country is now full of.
I for one, would love to leave. If you not dependent on free handouts from the state, I'm sorry to stay the list of things to stop for grows shorter by the day. :nono:
My suggestion would be to stack the offending cars upside down on top of one another with a telehandler, while smacking the gobby drivers round the face with a wet haddock, but sadly, for health and safety reasons, this is not allowed.
programme on a few nights ago called , parking wars , It was in someparts about local people with similar parking issues. One street who were blighted with train commuters blocking their parking arranged all sorts of activities. They made up some leaflets and gave them to the offending cars, it most cases it worked. the residents cars all had a4 signs in the window saying" my owner lives on this street , does yours".
one guy completely solved his school run parking problem with a hiviz ,a clip board a camera and a confident approach in asking illegal vehicles to move on.
It was actually called "Parking Mad" and should be available to view on the BBC iplayer should you wish to watch it.
hi guys,,awkward one here when the police are no help.. definatly get video evidence,contact the highways as well an get the name of the top dog,an ask for a meeting with him. the parking issue is a biggy,,,my advice here is,,is there any parents there with young kids in push chairs etc?,,if it is,,get photos of them "trying" to pass with the cars parked on the pavement-you dont have to show faces etc,just be able to get the push chair struggling to get past,another good one to have is a shopping bag hooked on the side of the push chair,,makes it even wider,,,also tells the local authority your walking an not using public transport or vehicles etc,,,"all part of the green issue!". had a prob some years ago with cars parked on double yellows outside my house,my own son couldnt pass as they were parked that close to the edge!!, resulting in all the kids stepping out onto a main road to pass,,forgot how many times we rang the police an as said above by the time they turned up all the traffic had gone!. even had pcos stood on both sides of the road for a day or so "asking drivers to move", they even park 4 cars long in the bloody bus stop!!!,,one was parked outside my drive whilst the copper was on the otherside of the road,,when i pulled up they did move ,but pulled into the bus stop 20yds up the road on the pavement to!. I went mental on the copper,i said why the hell dont you give um a ticket?,,,but they wouldnt,,"oh ill have a word" he said,,as he walked towards the car it pulled off!!,,so i said give him a bloody ticket ffs,,,,you can clearly see his reg no.
so i understand your frustration believe me,,but touch wood we havent had a problem for bout 2yrs or so now,,,,but sods law says after this reply they`ll be back ! lol. keep us updated as how it goes,good luck.
We've started to collect pics. Its amazing what the residents can start collecting once you show them what to do. There was a long wheel transit parked which was going over the pavement. We took a photo of that, and then noticed the pot holes in the pavement. Photos of those as well. I've told them no matter how meaningless it might appear to be, take a photo.
Coincidentally we are having a similar problem outside our house at the moment. The wife has rung the Police on a number of occasions :whistling: bloody useless so far.
Quote from: The Wolf on May 24, 2014, 02:38:01 PM
Coincidentally we are having a similar problem outside our house at the moment. The wife has rung the Police on a number of occasions :whistling: bloody useless so far.
I have had the same problem for a couple of years admittedly a smaller scale I live in a close very tight for parking. I have a :asshole: of a neighbour who works for BT :censored: he leaves his car outside his and the :censored: BT van in front of mine .I have asked on many an occasion why when the BT depot and car park is a less than a mile away??. His response is always it's legal sir. I don't know about a slap with a wet haddock a piece of 4x2 sounds better.
Quote from: pross on May 24, 2014, 03:22:04 PM
I have had the same problem for a couple of years admittedly a smaller scale I live in a close very tight for parking. I have a :asshole: of a neighbour who works for BT :censored: he leaves his car outside his and the :censored: BT van in front of mine .I have asked on many an occasion why when the BT depot and car park is a less than a mile away??. His response is always it's legal sir. I don't know about a slap with a wet haddock a piece of 4x2 sounds better.
I would just write a letter to the CEO of BT. That should get your neighbours attention.
Pross, even though a vehicle may be taxed, insured etc there is no automatic right to park on the highway. If the vehicle is causing an obstruction then there are powers to deal with it, the hard part is finding a cop willing to put the effort in to deal with it.
Despite being assured by our local police that they would call us back, three days later the wife is still waiting for a call back.
lots of good ideas, letter to BT about their van, with pictures (as another thought do you get taxed for using a work van for travelling to and from work?)
I have to agree with the comments about the state of the country, the I'm all right jack so you can :censored: off attitude seems to be pervading most of society.
I took a more direct approach to my parking problem - problem solved - lol
forgot to add this as well,,,,after a few calls to the police with no joy at all,my mrs came home an a car was actually parked in our drive!,,waiting for the kid to come from school,,my mrs pointed to her as if to say "shift",,she looked at her like wtf ya prob,,,bearing in mind at this time of day its grid locked an my mrs was now blocking the road trying to get to our own drive,,.she went over the station an spoke to a copper who happened to be one of the guys that was sent over in prev wks. she said about the kids having to cross onto the road an walk around the cars tha were on the pavement so close to the wall an hedge,,,,his reply was "tell ya son to walk past with his school bag by his side scratching the side of the car!!!!!",,,if the driver gets out an comes an knocks ya door saying ya son has scratched there car,just tell them to ring the police!!,an because hes a minor they cannot do a thing!!!--an he said "hopefully this will deter them from parking there in future". an yes thats wha we pay our taxes for ???? :asshole:
Just an idea...
Contact the local Fire and Ambulance Stations and ask them to review the situation as far as access in an emergency is concerned....
They will be all over that if there is an issue.