Car parking across drive - what can I do?

[EastdulwichNewbie]

This morning I have woken up to a car parking across the drive meaning I can?t get out. I need to drop the children at school and run some errands but I can?t get out. It keeps happening and I am due to give birth any day now and am worried about being able to get to hospital.

Is there anything I can do to prevent it from happening? It?s really frustrating!

Thank you.

[singalto]

Call the local police..

[James Barber]

You might wish to consider parking across your own drive way to ensure you have access to your vehicle.

i don't know which road but you could ask for double yellow lines but this would take some time to happen. If you wish to request such lines email [email protected]

The Police will rarely act with urgency of drives being blocked - they may make an exception in your case but I doubt you'd want the added stress.

[Alexthecamel]

James Barber Wrote:

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> You might wish to consider parking across your own

> drive way to ensure you have access to your

> vehicle.

> i don't know which road but you could ask for

> double yellow lines but this would take some time

> to happen. If you wish to request such lines email

> [email protected]

> The Police will rarely act with urgency of drives

> being blocked - they may make an exception in your

> case but I doubt you'd want the added stress.

Are you sure that?s safe advice James? If the kerb is dropped the owner isn?t exempt from the requirement to not park across it.

[Sally Eva]

If you have a registered drop kerb, Apcoa will issue a ticket. Call them on 0207 708 8587

[ianr]

https://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?5,1877690,1877815#msg-1877815

[Cardelia]

Alexthecamel Wrote:

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> Are you sure that?s safe advice James? If the kerb

> is dropped the owner isn?t exempt from the

> requirement to not park across it.

There is no specific law forbidding anyone from parking over a dropped kerb. The actual offence under which this is dealt with is the catch-all "causing an obstruction" (or words to that effect). This is obvious when you think about parking across a dropped kerb which is meant to aid pedestrians crossing roads, but is less clear cut in other situations. For example, where someone has walled over a drive but the dropped kerb is still there, it's not illegal to park over it because you can't obstruct access to a wall. Or if you park across your own driveway, who exactly are you obstructing?

In practice Southwark won't enforce parking across driveways unless the owner makes a complaint. Sally Eva's advice is good, but please mention to the call centre operator that you want the vehicle removed rather than just ticketed.

[Penguin68]

In general the police take a different view of cars blocking an entrance when there is no car on the drive, and when one is being blocked from exiting (which makes sense). Your condition should encourage them further. In fact I believe that you would be justified (I'm not suggesting this) if you used your car to push the other out of the way. I think there is some case law on that.

[EastdulwichNewbie]

Thanks all. We do have a dropped curb and the council did move and thankfully the car owner knocked to apologise (which I wasn?t expecting!).

[kford]

Viz has the answer:

http://viz.co.uk/2014/09/25/tyre-nails/

[Pugwash]

we have a drive, dropped kerb and also double yellow lines (which were put in without any consultation with ourselves) and I still have cars and heavy vehicles parking across.

Fortunately, I was not using the car that day, when a long vehicle with building material pulled up to unload and was there for almost an hour.

Last week, white car (mini cab) parked blocking my exit, sounded my horn a few times and indicated to mini cab driver on the other side of road that I wanted to get out - he asked me to wait as his fare was not ready and he was not prepared to move the car. He had left a very small gap and I was able to squeeze through with about 2 inches to spare.

[Sally Eva]

report this to Apcoa on 0207 708 8587. They come promptly and if this is a repeated problem they will include it in their motorbike rounds.

Try a sign which says "blocking this drive will be ticketed". Builders near us wrote a similar message all over their boundary boards. They needed access etc. It worked.

If you need your drive kept open, this is a practical method of achieving this.

[Ghlpc]

A tub of yellow gunk might do the trick

[suzieb]

if the drive has no road marking to show the drive is legal then there is nothing you can do

[sheff]

No..

Southwark don?t put white markings down anymore..

Haven?t for a few years now.

[seenbeen]

Ghlpc Wrote:

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> A tub of yellow gunk might do the trick

unfortunately the car driver will know where you live!

[Sally Eva]

If the drop kerb is registered with the council, call Apcoa on 0207 708 8587 and they will ticket it.

As someone said above you could ask that it be towed away.

[bels123]

The drop kerb doesn?t need to be registered anymore (know you did in the past) you just need to phone them to ask for enforcement officer to come and issue ticket. They come pretty quickly.

[intexasatthe moment]

And it doesn't need to have any road markings

"Road markings adjacent to dropped kerbs

In most circumstances it's an offence, irrespective of the presence or absence of road markings, to park adjacent to a dropped kerb."

https://www.southwark.gov.uk/parking/guide-to-parking/dropped-kerbs-and-driveways?chapter=4

[ianr]

> "In most circumstances it's an offence, irrespective

> of the presence or absence of road markings, to park

> adjacent to a dropped kerb."

For this and the exceptions, see s.86 of the Traffic Management Act 2004. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/18/section/86.

Section 86(3) -- "The second exception is where the vehicle is parked outside residential premises by or with the consent (but not consent given for reward) of the occupier of the premises. This exception does not apply in the case of a shared driveway. " -- is consistent with the practice of not taking action against such a vehicle unless the occupier has complained about it. Section 14 of the London Local Authorities and Transport for London Act 2003 as enacted http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2003/3/part/2/crossheading/parking/enacted stipulates similarly, and its s.14(4) prohibits the issuing of a PCN where there hasn't been a complaint.

I'm not sure that there hasn't been any updating or consolidation of either of the above provisions to change them substantially, but assume not. And they seem in line with councils' published guidance. If anyone wants to check, a Southwark council officer responsible for enforcement should be able to help.

[eddeal1]

can you put yellow line cross the driveway yourself ?

[bels123]

You don?t need a yellow line. Southwark will enforce (issue a ticket) against a vehicle blocking a dropped kerb driveway. Phone them on 020 7708 8587

[eddeal1]

thank you...only from 10 am to 6 pm i have tried them many time and it seems that the people blocking driveways know that.

[KidKruger]

get some strong glue and paste a huge wad of wallpaper across the windscreen driver's side. then daub on it, "do not park here".

[Sue]

KidKruger Wrote:

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> get some strong glue and paste a huge wad of

> wallpaper across the windscreen driver's side.

> then daub on it, "do not park here".

Unfortunately, as stated above, the car driver will know where you live ....