Street parking

Even though I rarely have need to park on the street, watching how people park in the spaces available on my road.
I am confident there is easily space for two cars outside my house. Unfortunately local neighbours don’t see it that way and park selfishly, leaving others to struggle to find spaces, and then the over hanging of peoples driveways begins.

So imagine my delight this morning, to not only find a huge roller parked outside the house (childish love of all big things) but to see that the driver of it had managed to leave space for a car to also park in the space.
So while some can’t park a Focus or Fiesta in the space and leave room for another car, someone can park a bloody great road roller and still leave space.

Why do people park like idiots? Grrr
Rant over…

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anon64893700, join the club. Small car owners seem to be the worst. And then people who drive large Audi’s, usually taking up two spaces even thought they will have both front and back parking sensors. In Norfolk at the moment and that doesn’t tend to happen as farmers in Land Rovers have a unique way of parking, they park by touch As a result people park reasonably well.

Then the same people complain there is nowhere to park when they are last to get there that day.
If we all just worked together eh lol.

There’s very little parking on my stretch of road, what with bus stops, double-yellows and school zig zags. There’s one spot where two reasonably sized cars can park but there is invariably one SMALL car right in the middle. Drives me nuts.

Hi 5 fellow smartie driver!

Same situation at mine @RachaelDunlop I can get my 5 series estate out there and a friends 3 series, but just a focus can take the whole space.

Yes this bugs me too! When I park on my street I always ensure I am close enough to the next car to ensure there is more space for others. But some people seem to like leaving a huge gap in front of their car. I have to admit since living on my road where parking is limited I’ve become a dab hand at parallel parking!

Another thing that annoys me is people who put bins out to ‘reserve’ the space in front of their house - I don’t mean occasionally when they have a delivery but every day!

Aaah the entitled space owners. Yup know a few of those. Very annoying when it’s every day.
I always park with as much consideration as possible, can’t always guess who will leave first though.

School time over the other side of Church Rise is funny, watching people roll into the middle of spaces and just dump it. Then watch their frustration the next day when someone else did the same and there is no space for them.

I find it interesting that people who have no dropped kerb reserve the space on the road with cones.
Having paid for a dropped kerb why do LBC not enforce the situation the Highways department says it has no money left in its budget to add yellow lines on road corners where idiots park causing restrictions.
Also should there be a restriction on the number of cars people own, we have a situation where one house/2 families (4 drivers) have 7 vehicles to clarify not commercial I am talking cars.
I have also suggested and have been informed that it will be considered that PV car park charges be reduced to encourage more use. If £5+ discourages usage then surely a full car park charging a lower cost would be revenue positive.

The cones / bins can be ignored - just lift them out of the way. Obviously someone selfish enough to do it might complain to you but it’s anti-social and they should be shamed.

Yellow lines shouldn’t be needed on corners - the Highway Code is fairly clear about how close to a corner people should park and Lewisham should empower their traffic management people to ticket anyone who ignores this.

Not sure how you’d limit the ownership of cars - that’s the sort of thing which resident parking permits is probably most effective on.

I’ve been a fan of making the PV car park more useful (and full) for years. Making it free all day except for 30 mins at lunchtime would be a good way to get commuters to pay while making it more useful for the rest of us. But if you like in SE23, should you really need to drive to PV to use local businesses?

Good response.
Unfortunately LBC do not really enforce any form of road management other than car parks. There are double yellows on a lot of corners but this has stopped due to lack of funds? They also seem to have little interest in abandoned or untaxed cars as witnessed in Windrush Lane which I understand have been reported by residents on several occasions. You are correct shopping in FH does not require parking except when purchasing significant shopping or perhaps early evening dining when heels (not mine) and finery preclude a 15 minute walk in inclement weather.
I do feel that Forest Hill is a poor relation in regard to council spend and would be interested to know what the allocation of monies is based on population.

This isn’t a matter for the local authority, so I do not expect that they have much interest.

If you want to take action, you can visit Report an untaxed vehicle. You need to “report the vehicle registration number, make, model and colour of the vehicle and the street name, town and postcode where the vehicle is parked”.

While you are being a good neighbour, you can also Report a vehicle with no MOT.

As it happens, have noticed lots of clamped vehicles locally due to lack of tax.

Now you don’t have to display a tax disc, you’ll have to check on the DVLA website to find out if a car is taxed or not.

Stupid question maybe, but how do you know they’re untaxed, these days?

Normally, the car will be looking a bit shifty, possibly with the headlights too close together.

Then you go to https://vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk/ and enter the vehicle registration and make. It will tell you the tax and MOT status, and expiry dates.

I had absolutely no idea that information was available to everyone online!!! Thanks, Andy! Looks like a curtain-twitcher’s delight!

Just checking to see if my post before Andy’s has suddenly become invisible…

The one that I was shown as abandoned untaxed etc was filthy you could not see in to the car and one tyre was flat. Other than that I guess you would notice it does not move for weeks. I believe the residents in Windrush Lane have complained as it probably is seen as a private road?

As for parking across a driveway I believe it is a civil offence to block someone in, however not to prevent entry to a vacant drive. LBC do offer a white H line to be painted across the ‘mouth’ of the drive to make it more obvious think they charge around £80 to paint. Also note that it is illegal to mark/paint the highway with up to £1000 fine.
I think most people are fairly reasonable with parking, the exception is parents dropping off their kids who believe once they have turned on the ‘park anywhere’ lights (hazards) it absolved them of all responsibility

Yes, foreign plates are a problem. You are probably best to take them off* and then report the car as abandoned.

*Please do not actually do this.

Did you know the council will act almost immediately to remove a car if the petrol cap is missing!!!

Non-sequential reading on my part!

As well as moving any cones/bins so you can park, feel free to move any ambulances out of the way, though it is a bit rude to do this with the patient inside as happened in Newbury

Lewisham Council’s website seems to differ on this:

Untaxed vehicles

We can remove vehicles that are untaxed but not abandoned using devolved DVLA powers. With these powers, we can remove vehicles that are on a public road with road tax that is at least two months and one day out of date.
http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/myservices/environment/street-cleaning/Pages/abandoned-vehicles.aspx

Well, it says they can, not that they will

One was removed from my road in a few days after reporting. Nothing ventured…

And if the fuel cap MAY be missing it is removed pdq.