Thursday, August 16, 2007

The Council knows best....

Yesterday afternoon as I was sitting at my computer, enjoying a little post lunch relaxation, my peace was disturbed by a council lorry parking opposite the house. Naturally I was nosey curious so I watched for a while; I thought they were just parking up to waste time take a break, or even do some work on the main road. Next thing the two chaps were looking at a car parked outside my house and picking up some litter- must be a first. I normally find after we get waste or recycling collections there is more rubbish blowing about than before and I end up clearing it from the front garden and the road (I musn't digress)!!! The men saw me and made gestures which I gathered meant 'did the car belong to me'. I explained who I thought the car belonged to and they went and asked the guy to move it and then promptly started marking the road. When I asked what they were doing they said putting down 'keep clear signs'. I was quite surprised as we already have yellow lines around the corners from the main road and there have rarely been any problems with visibility.

It took them about an hour to slowly do the work and when they left we had these ugly great markings on both sides of the road outside our house and that of my neighbour. When I rang Embee to tell him (I won't repeat what he said because I don't swear but one word rhymed with 'mucking'). The real point is we had no warning that this was happening (a letter would have been courteous- dream on) there were no notices posted (too easy) to clear the road and as far as we know no one had complained about the parking- or had they!!!

This has actually reduced the parking space and it remains to be seen if this will cause us problems by not being able to park outside our house. Along the main road there are several houses owning more than one car who regularly park in this road as they don't have sufficient frontage to comfortably park in their own driveways. It's also a real eyesore, but I expect I will soon get used to it... it does mean that we don't have to look at any parked cars from our sitting room window so that's the bonus :)

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19 Comments:

At 16/8/07 10:06, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Over here it's illegal to park that close to a corner anywhere.

 
At 16/8/07 11:02, Blogger Beccy said...

So Dad has lost his favourite parking spot!

 
At 16/8/07 14:15, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Go buy some gray spray paint.

 
At 16/8/07 14:19, Blogger ChrisB said...

swampy I would do just that if I had enough nerve!

 
At 16/8/07 14:21, Blogger FH said...

Atleast you get a clear view to look out! Can't fight the govt!!:))

 
At 16/8/07 15:01, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Rhymes with "mucking". Ha!

 
At 16/8/07 16:48, Blogger Beckie said...

An unexpected result of this post was my son's excitement over seeing the picture of the lorry. He thought is was pretty special. He ooed and ahhed for a good 3 minutes (that's a lot for him).

 
At 16/8/07 17:34, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Keep Clear - hmmm.. Here is would have said, "No Parking".

 
At 16/8/07 17:35, Blogger Sam said...

My parents brought me up never to use such language. And his own father would have used the word "bally" instead.

 
At 16/8/07 17:54, Blogger Unknown said...

It's illegal to park that close to a corner here. They should have told you though!
We had our main street re-sufaced a few weeks ago. The council didn't tell anyone, so they re-surfaced around the cars! The patches are still there.

 
At 16/8/07 18:20, Blogger Jennifer (Jen on the Edge) said...

You should definitely have been informed. But, as everyone else has commented, your view will be better.

 
At 16/8/07 19:10, Blogger ChrisB said...

beckie how sweet that your little one loved the lorry :)

John that is absolutely mad and such a waste of time. I don't think the councils are known for their intelligence!

sam I did tell him off!!

asha & jenifer agreed the cars have gone but I'm still looking at those huge letters instead!!

 
At 16/8/07 20:49, Blogger Sam said...

why dont they just continue the double yellow - it means the same thing - no parking?

 
At 16/8/07 23:19, Blogger Barbara said...

At least the view is better. I know how annoying it is to have people parking in your street. We get it from workers parking in our street as it's close to the town centre.

 
At 17/8/07 01:17, Blogger Unknown said...

I'm with Swampy.

Hey. I'm the paint queen right now! Tank me up on margaritas and shout mexican slogans at me and I might be willing to do the deed;).

Actually, I wish the council would paint lines like that near one end of our house. People are forever parking in front of my ONE sitting room window. *irks me no end when there is plenty of other space to park* (I've put pot plants all along the front to thwart them though....it seems to be helping)

 
At 17/8/07 04:47, Blogger Molly said...

Do the yellow lines also mean "Keep Clear" or "No Parking?" If so, it seems that continuing the double yellow lines would be useful. Here the curbs are painted yellow, which is less obstructive. Additionally, there must be some general rule about parking too close to the corner.

You are right, a letter would be courteous.

 
At 17/8/07 07:15, Blogger Pamela said...

Maybe a pedestrian was hit on such a corner and thats why the choice of words

certainly no parking would have been for cars


stay clear is all encompassing.

Hope the neighborhood cats can read

 
At 18/8/07 08:26, Blogger ChrisB said...

mjd the double yellow are the legal no parking I think these are the deterrent and it's working so far no one has parked there.

pamela I ought to walk around taking photos because our local council is spending a lot of money on 'traffic calming schemes' which don't seem to be very effective!!

tiger lambgirl I'll remember that offer!!

barbara luckily we only get cars from local houses and people visiting a doctors surgery. Sometimes we get a lorry using the next door B&B now that really does annoy me!!

 
At 20/8/07 23:22, Blogger ~ej said...

ahh, but they don't suggest where you can park now that you are unable to park there ;)

 

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