Morning all!
Sorry - this is long!
On Tuesday, the city council did this groups.msn.com/honestjohn/pologirlsparkingnightmar...5 to our car park, meaning that where you used to be able to get around 15 cars around the central circle and many more around the kerb, less than ten people can now park.
The other option is to park around the front, on the roads that go around the flat complex. As you can kind of see in this photo groups.msn.com/honestjohn/pologirlsparkingnightmar...6, the kerb is cut away a bit at one point and sunken in the middle. Now, sensible people pull onto the curb and to either end of the cut away bit, to allow other people to park there too, and also ensuring that their cars aren't clipped by the numerous ambulances and dial a ride buses that come to see the old folk.
But.. there is one Ka that always parks right in the middle of the cut away, and not on the kerb at all, meaning that noone else can park there, and they have to bump up onto the kerb or find somewhere further away. Trust me in this area you wouldn't want to be too far away from your car. Admittedly the Cavalier in the photo is doing exactly what the Ka does but he doesn't live here, and well, he drives a Cavalier so it's not his fault! ;-)
Wednesday night I left this note on the Ka's windscreen: "Sorry to ask but if you pulled onto the kerb and further forwards/back, other people would be able to park in this bit too. At the moment your small car always seems to take up space for 3. Thank you." Nothing happened so last night I left "Please pull on to the kerb. There's just not enough room now for you to take up this much space. Thanks." This morning she has left a big note on her own car saying "DO NOT TELL ME WHERE TO PARK MY CAR!".... which she took off and threw on the floor when she went to work, which just shows how selfish and inconsiderate she is. I don't know which flat she lives in otherwise I would have asked her personally in the first place, and I don't think she knows it's me leaving the notes.
What next? It's only a little car - is it criminal damage to just rock it along a bit?? ;-)
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Why not just park somewhere that incoveniences her and leave a note on her windscreen advising her to practice what she preaches and not bother telling you how to park.
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Ask two neighbours to cooperate with you and then all three of you should confront her and have it out. It may then sink in that she's the minority annoying the majority. Reminds me of the woman I found parked on a zebra crossing recently, who couldn't care a jot that, in parking terms, what she was doing was just about as stupid and illegal as you can get. Unfortunately, there's more than one born every minute.
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Arrange with two people who have bangers to park right up to her bumpers so she is totally blocked in. Leave her to marinade in own anger for several hours and then ask whether she is prepared to learn to be considerate before letting her car out :-)
She may of course be incapable of parking properly, a male resident asking whether she would like helping in learning how to park properly might cause a nice scene ;-)
A couple of trolley jacks placed under the jacking points would allow you to move the car into the preferred parking position that you are trying to educate her about. Then park other vehicles as you would have done had she parked properly in the first place. If she can still get out easily then she has no reason to complain and hopefully it won't take too many iterations until she grasps the idea!
teabelly
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PG
I hate to ask this but on the first picture there appears to me to be what looks like a Polo inconsiderately parked by completely blocking the pavement by the entrance..... Anyone know the owner?!!
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Yes that would be my car! It was the only place left to park last night (even the grass was full) and it's not actually blocking the pavement.
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Sorry PG - it certainly looks like it is parked on the pavement to me - what is it then if it ain't a pavement ?
Please don't take this personally but if a Mum came along with a pushchair or someone pushing a handicapped person in a wheelchair they would be forced onto the grass or the road IMO.
You did say you get a lot of ambulances around the area so its not inconceivable that wheelchair users would be around.
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Bit of a sticky wicket if you're asking people to park on the pavement. Wot about the poor old people who might be wanting to use the pavement? Or anyone else for that matter? People have been struck by cars driving onto and along the pavement where I live: hence bollards to keep off the indolent.
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All of the above will almost certainly lead to war. From your description this is an ill-mannered person who is unlikely to see reason. I don't know the legality of moving the car, but if someone moved my car without my knowledge I would be a bit cross.
Is there a residents association or group of any kind? If not, can you start one? Who owns the building? Can they help?
Possibly if everyone 'officially' agreed to a parking scheme you might then be able to pressure the Ka driver into abiding by it. As it stands it seems that the reasonable among you have, politely but apparently without discussion, fallen into a sensible pattern of using the available space. The unreasonable are unlikely to comply without coercion simply because ill-mannered people, by definition, care nothing about others.
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Sounds like the problems all resulted from the council painting the spaces. Perhaps a little bit of 'adjustment' with a little black and white paint would solve the problems :)
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Why not beat her to the parking spot forcing her to see the error of her ways. A nice note placed on your car to the effect of "See how annoying it is now?" would help clarify things.
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Humour can help.
Had a similar situation years back - stuck a notice on the car with a picture of Lord Balfour on it (look him up if you care) and the wording
"Lord Balfour says it's *very naughty word* dangerous to park here".
It worked, amazingly - she never parked there again.
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Can you park in the middle of the rediculous raised circle? They can't call it a pavement surely, so should be ok to park on? Could fit a few on there...
Kev
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The owner of this Ka needs to be careful; we had a similar situation near us recently, which culminated one night in the offending vehicle having its tyres let down, which was probably the least expensive thing that was done to it. Admittedly that did the trick, but it was unpleasant to observe.
Trouble is, assuming that the Ka is not parked in contravention of any advertised restrictions, there isn't going to be a lot that you can legally do to stop this person doing this.
I know that some places have schemes whereby inconsiderately-parked vehicles get towed away - anything similar near you?
And as the council seem to be taking an interest in parking in your area, is it worth getting in touch with them? Probably not, I realise, but just a suggestion.
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Petition your neighbours to support an approach to the Council/Housing Association to reduce the roundabout to a bare minimum. Its hardly an object of architechtural beauty/SSI.
This would allow nose/tail parking to the pavement, almost triple the parking space available and still retain a small roundabout?
If the Ka is blocking vehicles then Ambulance/Fire Brigade in an emergency likewise. Again on the safety front approach C/HA to get it sorted.
DVD
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I know what a Site (Sight in this case?) of Special Scientific Interest is, but what is an SSI? Intrigued!
Student Stopping Inconvenience? It's certainly one of those.
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It's a bit sneaky, but I'd go to Wickes DIY, buy a bag of Tarmac, leave it somewhere to warm up, (at this time of year) and empty it to form a kerb ramp on the approach to the 'raised circlular parking pad'
You can bed the tarmac with a wet lump hammer, or just spread it out and wet (to stop your tyres sticking) it and drive your car up and down.
Sweep up first if the road's dusty, don't worry to much about rain, doesen't matter it'll still stick.
Good luck!
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Why did the council do this to the roundabout? Was it due to a Safety issue for emergency vehicles?
Also, the parking spaces look big enough to take a small lorry!
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1 Get a photo of her car and put it on the web on a site named something like "I don't give a **** about other people.com" Expain all the hazards she causes, not to mention the inconsiderate nature.
2 Leave a note on her car telling her that she now has pride of place on the internet, a courtesy copy of the photo and the web address would add a nice touch here.
3 Explain on the note that more photos will be taken and published unless she shows more consideration.
4 If that doesn't work, leave a copy of the local bus timetable for her route on the windscreen.
5 In addition, get one of those signs made along the lines of the "Baby on Board" type, but saying "Selfish Git Drives this Car".
Now I've got that off my chest....
H
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I still think the "generous helping of syrup" treatment (especially on the doorhandles) is the funniest solution .... purely hypothetically of course.
andymc
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Hehe...thanks - never knew you all had such evil streaks!
I'll let you know if anything else happens.
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PG - when it comes to guarding their adored vehicles, just about everyone has an evil streak - and there's no better way of showing how rules for oneself are different from the rest. There's no easy answer to the problem of the space cars take up when their owners aren't driving them (or when they are, for that matter).
The Englishperson's castle has now spread to include his/her car, but unfortunately parking space for it isn't seen as part of the bargain. I think the point has now been reached in most towns where cars take up so much public space that anyone who decides to buy another 10 cubic metres of plastic and metal should be able to show that it won't be an obstruction.
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