Horsebox parking woes

honetpot said:
Try living on an estate. Lots of people have work vans plus the family car. New estates have very little space for drives so work vans are often parked on the street, in fact in some areas they give up the front 'garden', and the parking on the road is jammed solid.
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Have been there.
But I think rurally and in a small village people are likely to be ‘fussier’ over their outlook.
 
Personally I would stand my ground; other people are parking in the same location, it can't be one rule for one and one for the rest.

If the villagers concerned are prepared to snipe at everyone parking in that location and take steps to legally prevent everyone doing it then fine. Singling one person out for doing something they don't like which is perfectly legal and isn't causing an actual problem, but letting it go when others do it is pure hypocrisy in my opinion.
 
You said it had been brought to your attention that the other villagers aren’t happy about it.

So the question is who brought it to your attention and how reliable is their opinion?

Is it them that’s not happy ? Is it one other person or the whole village?

If you just ignore what you have been told and carry on will it have a massive impact on your life ?

Will a general statement of “from my observation of past usage of the lay-by I was under the impression that it was generally used by villagers as overflow parking especially for oversized vehicles, if this is no longer the case then you will look into alternatives”
 
PurpleSpots said:
Personally I would stand my ground; other people are parking in the same location, it can't be one rule for one and one for the rest.

If the villagers concerned are prepared to snipe at everyone parking in that location and take steps to legally prevent everyone doing it then fine. Singling one person out for doing something they don't like which is perfectly legal and isn't causing an actual problem, but letting it go when others do it is pure hypocrisy in my opinion.
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I agree with this, unless it's a lot more obtrusive than you say.

I think we need a photo to decide :)
 
We have a similar issue, but from the other side of the fence. Our land backs onto a B road (with a national speed limit). We have 9 houses over looking the road on the opposite side to us. All but 1 have driveways big enough for there vehicles and that house has one car and park in one of the layby's. There are 2 layby's which are big enough for 3 or 4 cars if parked considerately. One of the house's often have skips and work vans in their drive and park their cars in the layby I/we use. But they don't park well and it is frustrating when you have hay bales or bags of feed to carry in over the stile (we have a stile for ease of access by the layby), but I could drive through the gate at the other end of the field it's just closer to the feedroom to go over the stile.

The other layby is closer to the house having the work down than the one we use, but is often used by people either car sharing and catching the bus into town (probably to avoid parking charges). It does cause unrest in our little hamlet currently. More from the other residents as they constantly mention it to me. I know it won't be forever but it is a pain/inconvenience to me, especially in the mornings on the way to work when I have less time to faff around parking further down the road. The general consensus in the hamlet is that the layby by the stile is 'my' or 'our' parking although it is just a piece of ground that's been parked on for a long time. Everyone else who needs to park there parks considerately and I suppose because they do they feel upset that the other people don't.

For me it's a small inconvenience which I grizzle about and get on with my day, but for people with more time on their hands it's the only interesting thing going on currently.

I think it's a really good idea to approach the parish council and offer a monthly donation to what ever they are currently fund raising for is a really good idea. If it's reported in the parish newsletter then it should change the narrative of the gossip from 'oh that horsebox is parked there again' to 'you know he/she donates to the parish fundraiser in exchange for parking there'. If your going to be talk of the village it's best if it a positive subject.
 
dorsetladette said:
I think it's a really good idea to approach the parish council and offer a monthly donation to what ever they are currently fund raising for is a really good idea. If it's reported in the parish newsletter then it should change the narrative of the gossip from 'oh that horsebox is parked there again' to 'you know he/she donates to the parish fundraiser in exchange for parking there'. If your going to be talk of the village it's best if it a positive subject.
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In theory that sounds like a good idea but I wonder if that would be legal for the parish council to accept that sort of arrangement? I also wonder would it just be used by those who are already disgruntled as setting a precedent for all sorts of favours from the parish council for donations or whatever? It could open up a whole new can of worms within the village IMHO.
 
dorsetladette said:
I think it's a really good idea to approach the parish council and offer a monthly donation to what ever they are currently fund raising for is a really good idea. If it's reported in the parish newsletter then it should change the narrative of the gossip from 'oh that horsebox is parked there again' to 'you know he/she donates to the parish fundraiser in exchange for parking there'. If your going to be talk of the village it's best if it a positive subject.
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The PC I work for might accept the kind donation, but if it was published anywhere it would be cited as a member of the public, no actual names, and certainly wouldn’t mention any connection to the parking. The accounts would read Donation of £500 by a member of the public towards the new parish council laptop or similar.
 
Clodagh said:
Have been there.
But I think rurally and in a small village people are likely to be ‘fussier’ over their outlook.
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I would hate to live in a tidy village. The first village I lived in the cows came down for the road for milking, and the silage clamp yard bordered our back garden, so you could end up with a tractor parked on the road in front of your house. Now people want to retreat from life to a Midsummer Murders style of living where they countryside as just an extension of their garden.
I have a neighbour who complains about everything, the council workmen know who she is, even though she is acres away from her next neighbour. I love it when the gas bird scarer starts at 6 am.
 
I think mud cows etc is very different from having a large vehicle parked in front of your house semi permanently. I had no problem with pigs and cockerels behind me, I now live within hearing range of a large national rifle shooting range that starts up every single Saturday and Sunday morning as well as two clay shoots and an army mortar firing range! I find things very peaceful but people move into the area and complain about it. It has all been here for years so they should have done their research. Suddenly having a horsebox park outside across the road is a different thing for me.
 
It is lovely how everyone cares about what others think of them, but in reality no one owns a view and the vehicle appears to be being parked in a lay-by perfectly legally and used by other vehicles. As long as the vehicle does not obstruct emergency vehicles, waste collectors etc, the owner is doing absolutely nothing wrong legally or morally. If the villagers want to complain to the LA, let them and see if any action is taken and then worry about it.

Live and let live, there will always be folks that have a gripe, I am one of them, my neighbour doesn't tend his front garden which is growing ragwort, annoys me but why stress over it.
 
AdorableAlice said:
It is lovely how everyone cares about what others think of them, but in reality no one owns a view and the vehicle appears to be being parked in a lay-by perfectly legally and used by other vehicles. As long as the vehicle does not obstruct emergency vehicles, waste collectors etc, the owner is doing absolutely nothing wrong legally or morally. If the villagers want to complain to the LA, let them and see if any action is taken and then worry about it.

Live and let live, there will always be folks that have a gripe, I am one of them, my neighbour doesn't tend his front garden which is growing ragwort, annoys me but why stress over it.
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That's a fair point, or several points, but it's nice not to fall out with neighbours 😊
 
Did you plan to get a new horse box and leave it on a public road? Or did it just not fit on your driveway when you got it? Maybe I am different but I don’t think I could sleep without my vehicles safe on my property- particularly a nice spangly brand new horse box

How do you get your horsey deliveries - feed bedding etc and horses, past the house and cars on the drive? Is there not a separate gate or entrance or something you can use and park it there? Where does the Vet/farrier park when they come?
 
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Mrs. Jingle said:
In theory that sounds like a good idea but I wonder if that would be legal for the parish council to accept that sort of arrangement? I also wonder would it just be used by those who are already disgruntled as setting a precedent for all sorts of favours from the parish council for donations or whatever? It could open up a whole new can of worms within the village IMHO.
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Technically, as pure as the thought is, it could be seen as a bribe. The local council not for profit organisations probably couldn’t be seen to accept payment for a non-chargeable service to turn a blind eye. It’s a difficult one!
 
Spiderpig2009 said:
Did you plan to get a new horse box and leave it on a public road? Or did it just not fit on your driveway when you got it? Maybe I am different but I don’t think I could sleep without my vehicles safe on my property- particularly a nice spangly brand new horse box

How do you get your horsey deliveries - feed bedding etc and horses, past the house and cars on the drive? Is there not a separate gate or entrance or something you can use and park it there? Where does the Vet/farrier park when they come?
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We knew there was a good chance it wouldn’t fit so yes we planned to park it on the road, at least temporarily, and accepted the risk. It’s a quiet village with no through traffic so I feel the risk is reasonably low. We can see it from our house. People with no off road parking park their cars on the road all the time. It would be a shame if it got damaged, but we are insured and to be frank, even though it’s nice and new, it’s still considerably less valuable than the cars we drive and we park those on the road all the time when we visit friends, go into town etc.

Lorry or flatbed deliveries like Haylage get dropped at the top of the drive and we have to move them ourselves. Farrier drives a caddy and gets in no problem. Vet etc similar. We can get stuff like pick ups and Ford transits in fine. But no vet or farrier drives anything as big as a coach built horsebox. Once past the house it opens right up.
 
AdorableAlice said:
It is lovely how everyone cares about what others think of them, but in reality no one owns a view and the vehicle appears to be being parked in a lay-by perfectly legally and used by other vehicles. As long as the vehicle does not obstruct emergency vehicles, waste collectors etc, the owner is doing absolutely nothing wrong legally or morally. If the villagers want to complain to the LA, let them and see if any action is taken and then worry about it.

Live and let live, there will always be folks that have a gripe, I am one of them, my neighbour doesn't tend his front garden which is growing ragwort, annoys me but why stress over it.
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^^^^^ THIS!
My neighbour is a tidy freak & sometimes I wonder why she chose to live where she does. If the lorry is parked legally & doesn't cause an obstruction then the moaners will shut up in time.
 
You know if you do something that irritates people there’s no point in thinking you can stop people being irritated.
I completely understand why people don’t want to look at a horse box most of the time ,
Not everyone holds our love of all things horsey.
So if you have the right to park it and you are going to do it you just have to grow a thick skin.
But you can’t expect people to stop being unhappy about it .
 
I wonder if people think it's someone from the livery yard rather than a resident? I'd put a post on your local group explaining the situation and asking whether people would prefer for you to park it on the grass verge. I wouldn't apologise though, you've done nothing wrong.

Some people will never be happy no matter what you do to try to smooth things over. We live on the main road through our village (between two fair size towns). Our house is one of 4 behind a layby, we all have driveways. One Christmas a bus that had been converted into a mobile sexual health clinic appeared in the layby, directly outside our living room window. We had a note through the door from the owner (all the neighbours did) apologising for parking it there but they had just bought it to turn it into a fish and chip van. It had broken down on the way home and it was stuck there. They were trying to get it towed away but due to its size and it being Christmas it could take some time. We didn't care but our next door but one neighbours, who couldn't really see it from their house due to the trees in the garden of the house between us called the police to reported it as abandoned and called the local council about it - all within about 2 days of it being parked there. Their argument was the sexual nature (other than big male and female symbols, the rest was quite discreet) was not suitable for their daughters (about 14 and 12 at the time) and the bus was too big and causing an obstruction (it wasn't, they could still park one of their two cars in the lay-by, which they always do even though there's plenty of room for 2-3 cars on their drive and leave room for one more car).

A few years later, the daughters are 19 and 17. They have a car each and a boyfriend each who also bring their cars over almost every day and stay for hours, often overnight. They still only park one car on the drive so there are 5 cars from that household completely filling the lay-by about 80% of the time, making it impossible for visitors to any of the other houses to park. People can't park on the road, it's too busy. Our neighbour in between us has offered us all his driveway to park in as he doesn't have a car but his gateway is very narrow with just enough room to squeeze a car through. Frankly, both daughters are terrible drivers and have scratched their cars quite badly several times so I think they're scared to use it. They do park across it which is fine in one sense as the owner doesn't need to get in and out and they're taking up space in the lay-by that would normally be left empty but it's not quite enough to make space for another car and stops anyone else using the drive - we'd park in it for our visitors to park in ours if we could. Nobody complains to them as they're not doing anything illegal but we all grumble about it. The double standard isn't lost on me.
 
GaryTheDonkey said:
We knew there was a good chance it wouldn’t fit so yes we planned to park it on the road, at least temporarily, and accepted the risk. It’s a quiet village with no through traffic so I feel the risk is reasonably low. We can see it from our house. People with no off road parking park their cars on the road all the time. It would be a shame if it got damaged, but we are insured and to be frank, even though it’s nice and new, it’s still considerably less valuable than the cars we drive and we park those on the road all the time when we visit friends, go into town etc.
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Just a thought, but our motorhome insurance doesn't cover it if it's parked overnight at the side of a road. It might be worth double-checking your horsebox insurance just in case - our clause is buried in the small print. 🤞
 
Totally off topic. But how do people with no large vehicular access to yards/fields cope with how you would transport something seriously injured or worse still dead?
 
I feel for you. Dad used to service my horse trailer nearly every year and he'd repaint in/out about every four years. During this time it would be parked outside their house whilst he fixed it, he'd remove the wheels and check brake shoes/replace, check floor, towing hitch, grease everything up, etc. He'd often spend from 11am - 8 or 9pm working daily on it. It was never left outside not being worked on and as soon as he'd finished it I was off competing/and it went back to the yard where it was kept.

One of the Councillors came down our road the one day touting for business, and one of the neighbours complained about it parked outside the house to him. When he passed my Dad in the road he glared at him and said "is that thing insured?" To which my dad replied "course it blooming well is".

Dad was so annoyed. He knew which neighbour had complained. You will always get people moaning about stuff. We'd not have minded if we'd left it outside the house for weeks on end or it was a tatty rusted old thing but it was always immaculate. Some people just like to cause trouble as it makes them feel important. 🙄
 
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