neighbours

I'll tell you all about them when i have more time to type ....heading out the door now to go grocery shopping, but i will post later today or tomorrow morning

Stay tuned................:WINK1:

 

Nice to see you have seen the error of your ways

 

Ah, well, see if I was the gaffer of the UK, I'd make a new rule. It would simply be this. If you have no private parking, then you may only have one car at the house. If you want to own more cars, that's fine, but when you go to insure them, you can't insure it as being kept at the same property, and you must show that you have somewhere private to put it when not in use. That could be a rented parking space.

If you have private parking for one car, then you may have two (ie you're only ever allowed one car living on the road).

In addition, normal laws and rules about parking apply. E.g. not within 30 yards of a significant junction, not in a way that causes an obstruction to either pedestrians, or other road users, etc etc.

Fines for repeat violations of the rules would be ring fenced into a separate fund, managed at local level, to be used for projects to promote cycling or walking or anything that makes it less necessary to drive.

 

the driveways along our road are quite long (for a 30's semi anyway) around 5 car lengths, but only the first car length is useable on a daily basis as the rest betwixed house and fence is quite narrow, wide enough to get a car up, but not wide enough to get out. we have 3 cars, one is in the garage until dry days only, one lives on the drive and one on the road/pavement.

within my plans of doing the house up, the front garden is getting paved over, half the wall at the front going and with a double width dropped curb (sorry guys/gals) just so we can get the cars off the road and make the driveway more useable.

there will be planting though,( so don't shoot me just yet) in the form of raised sleeper beds. the (little) amount of grass that is currently there isn't worth having tbh, and the space can be used more readily.

the curse of the modern world, as more and more families extend with kids growing up and not being able to afford their own property, so do the need/want/crave for an extra car or 2. at least we use the garage for what it was built for, its amazing how many people don't.

 

My neighbours used to have 4 cars outside thier house at one point, annoying most of the people nearby as they would clog the road up all the time. The missus and her daughters were thrown out after she cheated on him a few months before. Apperantly the police were invloved too...so I've been told

Anyway....

I get along with all of my neighbours at the moment. I put as much effort as I can to get along with them, simply by being considerate. You can't get consideration in return if you don't give it out first in my opinion. Each situtaion is diffirent for other members. But I grew up with very aggressive/noisy/inconsiderate neighbours and don't want to have the same thing happen to me again. So that's what drives me to make as much effort as I can with them all.

People seem to neglect their neighbours as people become more and more unsociable but having a neighbour on your side is one of the best things do. Perhaps offering to help out a neighbour etc is worth a thought.

 

i agree Jane. we are the newest to the road (moved in a year ago) but i was doing the house up for 3-4 months prior.

i did introduce myself, along with the tradesmen etc and did explain that there will be noise/vans/etc... on a daily basis, but only between the hours of 8-5, so most people would be at work. everyone is very pleasant, and i always say hello in the morn/evening as do the neighbours.

there are one or 2 that you can tell that people in the road don't like/get on with, due to being, as i gather, inconsiderate and selfish. thats natural, and i've already figured out who they are. i still say hello/hi etc.... but that would be it.

were not ones to get too friendly with neighbours as in inviting them round for tea and biscuits, but do acknowledge them and do stop and have a chat.

 

True. And this is something that successive governments should have been dealing with in a fair and practical way, but have completely failed to do.

Why do people need multiple cars per household? I reckon partly because of pressure on everyone to work, when years ago you'd have one bread winner and one home keeper (incidentally, that's the very outdated nature of the relationship between me and my missus, and we often hear criticism for it despite the fact it works for us). Add to that the fact that 'work' tends not to be local any more, and you have a problem. Add to that problem the fact that roads built for a fraction of the traffic they now get are congested and fairly dangerous, and you get those that would have been willing to cycle their 3 mile journey to work, now taking the car just because they don't fancy getting killed just yet. Now lets say one of the governments of the past who knows how many decades had turned round and said, hey, we must establish the best public transport network in the world. We'll have local buses timed such that they can get people either all the way to work or town, or to the train station on time, in reasonable comfort and at reasonable price. Oh, and we'll make proper cycle lanes rather than just paint a line on the edge of a busy road. And, we'll stop brainwashing people into getting everybody into work, so that less people have to travel, less households have no working member (if there were only two households in the UK, and only two jobs, it makes sense that if two people from one of the houses held those jobs, then nobody in the other house would have a job. Simple arithmetic). Inflation is kept under control as the majority of households only have one income, so the market isn't flooded with DINKys (double income, no kids) so that you don't need two people working. Less unemployment, less traffic on the roads, and those that do have to travel have more opportunity to do so on foot, public transport or their pushbike without getting themselves killed, sacked for persistent lateness, or ill from constantly sticking their hands on the snot coated handrails of mobile latrines.

Anyway, I digress, sorry for that, back on topic

 

thing is, everything has become so expensive comparitively speaking. cars when i was 17, were unheard of, yet now, drive past a school 6th from car park, and its full of new, or nearly new cars. more accessable or affordable?

housing has become more expensive, so even a double incomed household can't afford to start on the housing ladder. more and more properties unsold, where the starter homes used to sell readily, they are not selling due to the house prices that

a- where/are massively overpriced by the boom and greed of estate agents.
b- banks/lenders not willing to lend

myself and my wife both work, we need to, i think if there was only 1 income we'd struggle. we have a good lifestyle, not excessive or flamboyant but we dont have loans/cards etc... the only thing we owe is the mortgage, and thats all i'd want to owe.

everything has become more affordable to many (or has it??) due to the credit society we live in. classic case of "i want" but at a cost of credit and loans on a huge scale. something has got to happen to bring us back to normality. everything these days is done in excess and the state of the global economy has proved it.

 

Just as a BTW, does the elderly person in question have a dropped kerb to her drive? If she doesn't you might be able to make your point by parking across her drive sometime when she's out. It's illegal to park in front of a dropped kerb, but perfectly within the rules (if not in the spirit) of the game, to park infront of her drive if there's no dropped kerb.

And I have heard, although it may be wrong, that whilst (the dropped kerb caveat still applying) it's not permissible to park across someone's driveway and prevent them from leaving their property, the same rule does not apply once they've left - i.e. you can 'block them' out, but you can't 'block them' in.

 

LOL ... just had another problem with a neighbour

On fridays, I mow the lawn at the pub up the road from where I live

they have loads of heavy wooden tables on the lawn, so I take my wife with so as to help me move them when I mow ....

normally, I mow the lawn from around 8am on fridays, but this morning, my wife has to leave early and go to the city, so I got to the pub at approx 07h15

I was halfway done with the mowing, and a neighbour comes storming out his house shouting and pointing at his watch ...

before I could even say good morning, he starting ranting and raving, telling me that I'm not allowed to make noise before 07h30 and I should immediately stop etc etc

anyway, I told him that it's going to rain, and I need to mow as friday mornings is the only spare time that I have to mow the pub lawn

I continued to mow, and he stood at his window staring at me (it only takes 20 minutes to mow) .... as soon as I finished, it started raining and is still raining, so I finished just in time

anyway, got home and googled the law ... One may not mow between 11pm and 7am (government rules)

I went back to is home with the link of the law and told him that I will try and mow at a later time, but if it's going to rain and I need to mow at 7am, I will do so

anyway, I expect him to complain to the landlady ... it's not as though I woke him up, his kids were already dressed for school at 7am and they were all having breakfast (the curtains were open and I could see them at the dining room table) ... the road is busy, and there are loads of vans and lorries driving down that road aswell

 

all sorted ... guy just rang the doorbell, apologised, shook hands and said that I was totally within the law ...

I said that in future, I will try and mow a bit later

 

Well that was a good outcome *dim*, nice one, few people admit when they are wrong

 

he's ok ... he was maybe just in a bad mood ... I do know that 7am is a bit early, but I'm glad its sorted as it started raining as soon as I finished, and it's still drizzling now

I might quote him to sort his garden as it needs a mow/weeding

 

hmmm your probably right with the bad mood, I need at least 2 coffee's and a cig before I'm approachable in the mornings :WINK1:

you will have to add to the bottom of your quote, If weather permitting work will commence at a reasonable hour

 

It may make the road wider to pass vehicles with parking half on the path but it is an offence I my self used to do this until the police made me move it off the path as they pointed out the path is for pedestrians