Car parking problems...

Our road is becoming intolerable when it comes to finding a parking space. Well, to be honest it’s always been pretty bad, but it’s become worse in recent years as most of the nearby roads are now pay and display forcing town workers to seek free parking anywhere they can; as is their right. At least they are mainly gone by six in the evening. They have never bothered me. Often I’ve park in a residential street which was not my own, who hasn’t? Besides (and this is important) nobody owns the parking space outside their home on a public road.

Some of my neighbours don’t seem to agree though.

Initially it was private cones, illegally placed to reserve parking spaces on the road for workmen or family or simply because the cone placer was going out for the day. Only the police and local authority have the right to cone without permission and permit and, whilst you run the risk of criminal damage if you move and damage a cone, I was always very careful moving them from the gutter and placing them in the drives of the cone owners to make sure that they were safe. Of course by placing the cones they ran the risk of being prosecuted for obstructing the highway and, in the event of an accident to a member of the public - like tripping over one - public liability and all the costs entailed with that.

Now the new battle zone for parking seems to have become ‘H’ bar line markings – those single white lines that people can pay for along a dropped kerb if they want to use what was once a garden for a place to park a car. Personally I think allowing people to open up their front gardens as a car parking space should be banned for a number of reasons:

a)      It’s unsightly and can spoil the look of the house, particularly in a terraced row of town houses like ours.

b)      It is ecologically bad. There are precious few birds as it is without removing the shrubs and trees they need to thrive..

c)      It causes even more parking problems, particularly when people still park on the roads and refuse to park in their ‘drives’.

d)      There is the ‘H’ Bar issue to contend with.

Each time a kerb is lowered and an ‘H’ bar painted onto the road at least six feet of other parking space is lost as the ‘H’ bar overhangs the width of the entrance. I have an ‘H’ bar which extends three feet over my front gate (for no good reason I may add). ‘H’ bars are becoming a real annoyance. I woke up this morning to find yet another parking space ‘lost’ to ‘H’ bar. In fact one very ridiculous ‘H’ bar now extends over 30 yards without a break even though at places there is no drive for it to cover.

It’s a good job that it is perfectly legal to ignore these markings and, as you can see by the picture, one resident (the one who had the ‘H’ bar painted) is doing just that… If I didn’t know better I might almost believe that my neighbour thinks their white line gives he or she the right (and only he or she the right) to park there. Fortunately, I do know better, they are purely advisory, therefore there are no statutory regulations relating to them - as my neighbour across the road seems to already understand.

As long as you do not block access to a drive you can park on the white line of an ‘H’ bar – it’s a courtesy thing and down to the individual to choose or choose not to recognise it. Their purpose is merely to highlight to other vehicles that they shouldn't block access to off-road parking areas such as a driveway or garage. There is provision under the TSRGD for the Council to provide these H Bars and they do, although it is classed as advisory, and has no legal standing. Actual obstruction of a driveway is an offence that the Police can ticket for and some Councils have local regulations for areas of residence where there may be power to issue fixed penalty notices. But Manchester council state that ‘H bars are white lines that are marked on the road in-front of access areas. The lines highlight to other road users that they shouldn't block access to off-road parking areas such as driveway or garage’.

No mention of ‘H’ bars having any legal standing by Manchester then.

I for one will be courteous up to a point, but I’m not keen to open my front garden to give me the ‘protection’ of an unused drive. So I’m afraid when needs must, and parking spaces tight, courtesy will be going out of the window and, as long as I’m not obstructing, I’ll be parking where I can – white line or no white line.