Neighbour’s lack of concern for local community

Tsalta

This is in regard to my daughter and her family who live in a road where parking is very difficult. They have room to park at the back but visiting is not easy. Her next door neighbour who runs a driving school from home has three cars and also a disabled bay painted in white lines outside, but no one in the house is disabled nor has a blue badge. He has put signs on the wall and in the garden saying no one to park there. Recently when a delivery driver parked there he phoned the company, seeing the details on the van and demanded they call the driver and remove the vehicle immediately. He may have a family member who is disabled and who may call but have never seen a car with a blue badge in the space although he sometimes parks one of his cars in the space but often for hours it is empty whilst folk are looking for somewhere to park. My daughter is having building work staring on the house in April so there will be contractor’s vehicles who will want to park to unload. The road is very narrow, vehicles have to park on part of the pavement otherwise no room for other vehicles to drive down the road, like emergency vehicles. It seems to me very inconsiderate of the occupier to prevent cars parking there, even for a short while. He is not approachable and he last thing my daughter wants is a war of words with her neighbour - other local residents are also unhappy about this unused space. I have always believed it is a public highway and no one “owns” the space out side their house. If someone does park there but leaves a card to say where they are visiting, and are prepared to move if a genuine blue badge driver arrives, then is that not unreasonable? I am thinking of writing to th police to explain the situation, to get firm clarification and perhaps ask if a Community Officer could call and make clear to the occupier what he can or can’t do, without my daughter being drawn into a battle of words. Sorr for the long screed but I would welcome any thoughts perhaps from others who may have experienced similar. Best wishes and thanks to everyone. Tsalta

luvpink

@Tsalta

Your best bet would be to inform the local council as they would have authorised the disabled bay.

Also this person does not own the space.

Any blue badge holder can park there.

Welcome to the community.

OverlyAnxious

As above, any Blue Badge holder can use any Blue Badge space.

But non-BB holders can't use the space, even if they put a note on the screen. Generally I don't think that would be reasonable at all. A disabled person may not be able to get in and out of their car easily to read a note on the screen. Where would they park while reading the note? And they may not be able to go and knock on a door or call someone on the phone to ask them to move. The BB spaces should be left clear at all times that a BB user is not using them.

I understand this is an unusual case, and the neighbour doesn't appear to understand the rules either, but I'm afraid I can't condone non-BB holders using that space myself.