Apologies if this has been raised separately but can anyone let me know what recourse a home owner has when a car is parked across the dropped kerb that leads to the house's driveway?

I contacted Lewisham council and they stated that they do not have any enforcement policy.

At the weekend, I had two very young children (sleeping) and had to carry them precariously from my car about 50 yards away from my house because of a car blocking my driveway. I remonstrated with the offender but he really had no sympathy even when I explained this. In fact, he said that he had blocked my space because someone else had blocked his. Salt and wounds.

Whilst I do not think droped kerbs are a good idea if the council permitted it then surely it should enforce it.

When I worked in Sydenham a few years ago some **** accused me of blocking his exit (I wasn't) - this was a delivery lorry rather than a private home, but the response from Lewisham council was that they had no enforcement powers over dropped kerbs anyway.

Ask the Police what they can do.

Blocking exit from your driveway is illegal.
Blocking entry isn't.

http://www.penaltychargenotice.co.uk/par...n-code-27/

http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/core.nsf/a/p...oppedkerbs

I would hope that Lewisham have a similar policy. If the council are unwilling to take action I suggest that you and a neighbour park so close to prevent the offending car from moving, and make it clear that this will happen every time they park illegally across your driveway.

But you should also consider this in the grand scheme of things; 50 metres is not that far from your house on the odd occasion, and many of my neighbours would love to be able to park that close to their house.

Michael - thanks for the useful feedback regarding enforcement policies and to others too.

50 yards is not too far away from one's house but when you have to manage two very young kids (one sleeping baby) and their bags it is not very easy to say the least. What was more disturbing is the absolute nonchalance of the offender. Grrr.

Put your wheelie bin outside the entrance to your drive. The determined space usurper will move it, but it does put the casual parker off. I know I don't own the street outside my house, but I have a small child too, and if you're only popping to the supermarket for 50 mins I see no harm in saving yourself a space.
Contentious?

Unfortunately there are too many cars in mainly Victorian streets not built for cars.
This is made worse by the many lazy people parking near the train station.

I am surprised it has come to paring on peoples driveways . When I drove I would have never ever have done such a thing.

Hi Monacot,

you have my sympathies. With 2 children and bags you have no idea what to leave behind, and that 50 yards may be too long for anyone's comfort if the baby is left in the car. (I had instances when both my baby and the toddler were asleep)

Now I am not sure if you have a garage at the end of the drive like we do, but whenever I see someone parking across it whose car is not known to me I ring the police (non emergency number). I complain that we have a motorbike in the garage and that we need to use it. In most cases police will manage to ring the registered owner and they will move the car. I guess call from the police will stop them parking in front of my driveway. (For what is worth)

You could ask your neighbours to park close to your drive so that there is insufficient room fo anyone to park across it.

Monakot - totally agree with you.
We normally park our car on the driveway, but when people are too lazy to park a little further away from destination and block our driveway, it means we can't use the driveway, which we always try to do, to free up spaces on the road.

It's just ignorance. I have given up asking people nicely, as it tends to lead to a stream of indignance and bad language.

I would love our road to be permit controlled, and force those people who park in the road, then go off on a train to London to work to go. There is a huge car park down near the sorting office - they should use it.

Ehegarty: as you clearly live near FH station then all I can do is sympathise. There has been an increasing problem of parking in the streets around Honor Oak Park station since the Overground service started.
Apart from putting up signs like "24 hour access required" you could try one of these, which may make your driveway-obstructers go elsewhere.
BREAKDOWN TRUCK PARKING ONLY
DANGER! FORK LIFT TRUCK IN USE!
TRAFFIC WARDENS REFRESHMENT POINT
CAR BREAKERS YARD ENTRANCE

But please don't try painting white lines across the driveway as only the Council can do that (not that it has any legal status, it's just to remind potential parkers).
Apparently people have been prosecuted for that in the past - road graffitti?

I agree with Brian in that dropped kerbs are not a good idea for the majority.

I think that the council should levy a yearly charge for each dropped kerb to cover the cost of enforement and those expensive white lines.

The council's policy on non-enforcement is probably because it is too costly so the only solution is lobby the council to introduce charging and enforcment.

I don't want the police enforcing this as I'd hope they would have better things to do but of course they should when people have an essential need such as with children or the less mobile.

I don't see why I should have to pay a levy because there is a dropped kerb leading from my road onto drive and garage. I pay more council tax than people in housing without a driveway/terraced housing/flats. Those people who choose to live a fair distance from the station, or out of the area (Bromley, etc) pay less money for equivalent housing, so should be prepared to pay for the convenience of driving that little bit further nearer to work, by using car parks; the same way as I expect to pay if I want the convenience of driving to W1 to be nearer to work.
I have put notices up in the past saying we needed 24 hr access to the driveway, and it was ignored. We had a clearout at one time, and had a skip on the drive. When it was full, the day the skip lorry was due to collect it, people were still parking on front of the drive. I had to go and ask them not to park there as it was being collected. One guy said 'Oh I'm only going to be 20 mins'. I told him if the skip lorry arrived I would call the police. He got quite abusive and said the police would take an hour to f**ing turn up...

This is covered by PCN 27 and is enforcable by the local council traffic wardens. Give Lewisham council a call and ask for a warden on a scooter to make a visit. They are fairly prompt.

As a matter of interest, why do Brian and Paul think that dropped kerbs are bad things?

I'm still shocked that people park across other people's driveways! You'd have to be pretty thick-skinned not to have the decency to think this needs to be kept free.
I am tiring of London...

John , I agree 100% that parking in front of someone driveway is very vert anti social. I would never do it.

Robin
I do not like dropped kerbs on two fronts

1. Normally result in gardens being destroyed and indeed often increased flooding risks. Victorian and Edwardian houses were not built to have cars in the front garden

2. More and more difficult to park for other locals who do not want to destroy their front gardens.

Whatever my objections to dropped kerbs I am 100% against parking over the entrances/exits.

Also very much object to parking on the pavement. Seems especially rife in lower Devonshire Road.These should be fined.