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Parking issues

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
This is more of a moan than anything, I guess people will say there isn't a lot I can do!

Basically I am an MA student who commutes into London for uni twice a week. Now I am in the process of moving in with my partner who owns a house in Bedford but works abroad for 9 months of the year, so he isn't home at the moment.

My savings paid for my tuition fees and I have a part-time job in Bedford, which involves driving. The job just about covers travel, food and some bills, but I am living in minus figures and will be until I start working.

Where I am at the moment in Kent I park on a residential street when I go to uni a couple of days a week because it would cost between £7-10 a week to park in the station car park. I've never had any problems parking there, all fine.

However, where I am moving to there is a residential street near the train station that has unrestricted parking. The road is practically empty most times of the day and a lot of residents have their own drives and garages, so a couple of times when I've been staying at my partner's house I've parked down there.

The first time I parked there a woman next door to the house I'd parked outside followed me up the road and told me quite aggressively that if I left my car there, her husband would block me in and I wouldn't be able to get out when I returned. I thought it was a bit odd of her but just shrugged it off and moved my car.

About a week later I parked on the same street but somewhere different and recieved a note on my car saying "Don't live here, don't park here, not a car park". Then about two weeks ago I had to park there again, and when I returned to my car someone had scratched my car down to the metal work on both sides, on the bonnet and round the back, and had faintly scratched the word "twat" on the side of my car which I managed to get off :(

I really doubt it was kids or anything as it is a close that doesn't lead anywhere and it is a quiet area, so it isn't the kind of place you would get nasty youths passing through.

I reported it to the police but they basically said there is nothing I can do. The train station is about a 40 minute walk away from my new place and whenever possible, I walk. However some nights I don't return from university until 10 or 11pm, and I don't think it would be sensible for me to be walking a route that takes me through unlit parks etc. at that time of night.

Every time I've parked on this street I've parked somewhere different, to make sure I'm not parking outside the same person's house every time. I never block anyone's driveway and even try and park to leave room for people to still park outside their own house. I can understand it must be annoying for people to have commuters etc. parking outside their house every day, but as I said the road is practically empty and I think when you live near a station or a town centre, it is something you come to expect. Where my new house is parking is always an issue, and sometimes you have to park up the road and walk a few minutes to the house, but I would never dream of leaving notes on people's cars or vandalising their vehicles to try and intimidate them to stop parking there.

The police on the phone said "well isn't there another road you can park in" which to me is just completely avoiding the issue - that sends out the message to whoever has done this that basically they can break the law and get exactly what they want by doing it. It seems to me like it is one or two obsessed residents who must know the make and registration of ALL cars belonging to reisidents on that street, as well as their visitors, so they know exactly which cars to leave these pleasant little notes on.

Anyway the whole thing is really just bringing me down, I know its silly but I keep thinking about it all the time and worrying about it. My MA doesn't finish till next September so I have the option of paying a good couple of 100 on parking, or parking in this road and risking having worse stuff done to my car or even having someone coming out and doing God knows what to me.

It just annoys me that if something were to happen to the road my road tax money would go towards repairing it, yet someone is trying to terrify me into not using it at all. If someone came out of their house and said "oh sorry love my partner/I/whoever need to park there would you mind moving you car" I would have no problem with that, but it seems like someone is taking on anyone who dares to park ANYWHERE in the whole road and it is just ridiculous.

Anyway that is it really, I guess there is not a lot I can do :banghead:

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Set a trap. Hide round the corner and wait to see who damages your car. Then bide your time and brick their car when they ain't looking. :D
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    What a nasty old witch. Who CARES if someone parks outside your house? No-one owns the road!!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    katchika wrote: »
    What a nasty old witch. Who CARES if someone parks outside your house? No-one owns the road!!

    Well thats what I thought, but even if you hate people right outside your house you surely have to be a bit obssessed to do that to anyone parked anywhere on the road?!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Sound like a bunch of nutters.

    I know it's not an idea solution, but how about cycling? On that kind of distance there's not a lot between cycling and driving and pretty much all stations have bike racks. Not the most secure things in the world, but you can usually pick up a second hand bike for £30 from newsagent ads/freebe papers.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    What someone did to your car was unforgiveable and totally out of line. In this instance if all the people who live in the road have driveways of their own or garages then there isn't really a reason that I can think of that you shouldn't park there.

    Where I live and where my parents live there are only so many public parking bays and the residents leave their cars there. It is rather annoying when someone who is 'just visiting' or who has three cars in their families take up the resident car parking spaces and we have to leave our cars on the road. My car isn't insured to be parked on the road overnight and nor is my boyfriend's. Luckily for us we have a carport but at my parents house they often have to bump their car on to a patch of grass to get it off a main road because one family has five vehicles between four of them and take up all the spaces. It's quite rude and inconvenient for the people who've lived there for years.

    As I said though, YOUR situation isn't really like that, if indeed, as you say these people all have drives of their own or garages.

    There is a similar thread here from a few weeks ago that shows the strength of feeling about the issue.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Sound like a bunch of nutters.

    I know it's not an idea solution, but how about cycling? On that kind of distance there's not a lot between cycling and driving and pretty much all stations have bike racks. Not the most secure things in the world, but you can usually pick up a second hand bike for £30 from newsagent ads/freebe papers.

    Yeah I might look into that actually, thanks :)

    Of course I understand it is annoying for residents in situations where they have nowhere to park, but there are constructive ways of dealing with the issue like getting parking restrictions implemented (as they've done down in Kent so you can't park anywhere around the station between 8-10am) and getting it in the local paper etc. so it is made an issue for the council to take notice of, but I think terrorizing any non-resident into not parking there is not a solution! The fact that no one does park there and it is the emptiest road near a station I've ever seen does make me think I'm probably not the only one.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Leave a note through the doors of every house in the street saying that whoever scratched your car should have the balls to stand up and be counted rather than being a cowardly scroat, and until they do you'll continue to park your car wherever you like as the law entitles you to.

    Edit- some t-cut might work on the scratches.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Park up, wait around the coner till you can see who done it, then take a bassball bat to the little shits head
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I can see why someone would leave a note on the car (I've done that before to some dickhead who parks his car in the space that I could park four- and he doesn't live here) but what on earth happened to a bit of politeness?

    There isn't anything you can do without proof; maybe setting a trap would be a good thing, it'd be interesting to see what happened. And then beat the cunts to death.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Kermit wrote: »
    I can see why someone would leave a note on the car (I've done that before to some dickhead who parks his car in the space that I could park four- and he doesn't live here) but what on earth happened to a bit of politeness?

    There isn't anything you can do without proof; maybe setting a trap would be a good thing, it'd be interesting to see what happened. And then beat the cunts to death.

    Yeah exactly, if someone just said sorry I really need to park there would you mind moving, fine, no issue! But you can't take the law into your own hands every time someone does something to remotely irritate you.

    Setting a trap is very tempting, at the moment I'm just trying to avoid parking at all but I would love to know who did it and get revenge.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    That is out of order scratching your car and even writing "twat" on it, it''s disgraceful! Some people just take things a little bit OTT. But unless you are willing to lie in wait and see who is responsible there isn't much else to do, as annoying as it is! Fair enough if they constantly had commuters parking infront of their house's but from what you have said it doesn't sound like that. I don't see what you are doing wrong!
    we have a similar problem where I live. It's on a council estate with a car park in the middle where it's basically 1st come 1st serve for a space. A new family that recently moved here, their gate backs onto the car park, has basically claimed two car parking spaces for themselves right infront of their house. Considering they only have one car they have decided to make two spaces their's! They put cones in the spaces, have a sign up on their back fence saying don't park here. Once when my dad had no where else to park he had to park in one of these spots. Next morning went to his car to find scratches all down one side, all because he parked in a parking space!
    Some people are just pathetic :rolleyes:
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