Woman parks car outside home to stop lorries parking illegally – then …
A woman says she's at the "end of her tether" with lorries parking outside her house and plunging her into darkness. Sarah Pitt, who lives in a 400-year-old cottage on Queen Street in Belper,[1] has been battling Derbyshire County Council[2] for over a year to get new signs installed or double yellow lines painted to stop it.
Currently, single yellow lines on the road mean that it is illegal for motorists to park there between the hours of 9am and 7pm. But these rules are largely ignored by many, who park there for hours without punishment.
Last week, in protest, Ms Pitt decided to park her own car outside her house to prevent bigger vehicles from pulling up. But a traffic warden turned up ten minutes later and slapped her with a ticket.
She said: "You couldn't write it. I feel not just claustrophobic, but it's become a miserable place to live, and it's a shame. If the drivers stopped for five or ten minutes, it'd be fine. But I don't know if it's going to be five minutes or five hours. I've just had enough. I've done everything I can do apart from move out. And no one would want to buy this house right now because of this."
Ms Pitt, 56, moved into the quaint 1600s property almost five years ago, saying that the proximity of the house to the road due to the thin pavement didn't bother her. Often, people stop to look at and take photos of the house due to its age and historic appeal.
Before the pandemic, the parking issues were seldom a problem. But since, with an increase in home deliveries, they've gradually got worse, to the point where Ms Pitt says it can be a daily problem.
A huge lorry parked outside Sarah Pitt's house (Image: Sarah Pitt)
She cites various recent occasions in which huge HGVs have parked for long periods outside. They block out sunlight completely.
Ms Pitt works from home as a leadership & management trainer, meaning that she's there in the daytime when the sun is often highest in the sky, and the issue has become a major hindrance to her. One time recently, she simply packed her bags and left to go and work in town out of pure frustration.
Other times, she has confronted the lorry drivers herself, to advise them it is illegal to park there and to ask them politely to at least move to the other side of the street - which is still marked with a single yellow line.
These requests are met with mixed responses, she explains; sometimes they're gratefully heeded; other times she's told her to "go back inside and let people live their lives." She says that having to sort out the problem herself makes her feel "uncomfortable."
The yellow lines are painted down most of the street, so it bewilders Ms Pitt as to why her house is chosen as the parking spot for many road users when it is just as illegal further up, or on the other side of the road where deep gardens separate flats from the road, meaning that no light would be blocked. One driver did point to the visible sign on the other side and explained that he thought that meant that it was illegal there but not outside Sarah's.
This signage plate, which is on the other side of the road to Ms Pitt's house anyway, is that small that it is hardly noticeable (Image: Derby Telegraph)
Perhaps the oddest point of note about all this is that Ms Pitt has no idea what the lorries are there for. The area is largely residential, the street is thin and claims the drivers are "delivering" in the area seem easily disreputable due to the length of time they are parked.
It's left Sarah "increasingly frustrated" with the lack of a suitable solution, she says. Attempts to contact the relevant departments of Derbyshire County Council can take up hours of her day.
She first made contact with them in May 2022. After being "passed around every department", she was finally put in touch with a "traffic and safety engineer".
The engineer, in trying to help, performed his own inspection on the street and found that the single yellow parking restrictions were actually invalid due to the fact that the signs advising of the restrictions on Ms Pitt's side of the street were a total of 72m apart - more than the regulation 60m. Ms Pitt was advised via email that therefore she - and others - could in fact legally park there due to the yellow lines not being enforceable.
It was at this point that she parked her own car - which she usually parks elsewhere nearby due to the restrictions - in front of her home, thinking it could solve the issue temporarily by preventing anyone else from parking there. Ten minutes after she'd gone inside, she saw a parking warden issuing her a ticket from the seat in her living room.
Furious, she showed him evidence from her email conversation with the county council that she'd been told she could park there. The warden counted 35m between the signs in strides, waved off the dispute, and issued the notice nevertheless.
Now, responses from the traffic and safety engineer have died off and she's been advised by the council that she'll have to appeal the fine legally through official processes. In the meantime, she's still waiting for a new sign to be erected on her side of the road to make the lines legally enforceable again. The traffic and safety engineer said the sign would be requested when he first picked up her query months ago, but added that due to money and resource issues it "may take a long time".
Sarah fears this sign would just be ignored anyway, like some of her requests are, or that a traffic warden shortage - Ms Pitt says she's been told by the council that wardens are shared across regions - would mean that offenders escape unpunished anyway and that nothing would change. She'd rather have a permit for herself or see double yellow lines painted, but has been told that double yellow lines would not make the offence of parking between 9am and 7pm any more illegal.
Due to the universal recognition of double yellows as a place where parking or waiting isn't permitted though, she feels it might help. She does add, however, that those who drive for a profession should be expected to know their road markings by heart.
What are the rules on single yellow lines?
Single and double yellow lines are painted by the local council or jurisdiction in any given area. Punishments for breaking the rules are dished out by the same councils.
Double yellow lines mark lengths of road where there is "no waiting at any time", says Derbyshire County Council's website. There are, however, exceptions, such as for "stopping quickly to load or unload heavy goods" - an example given by the AA. Small information "plates" fixed to lampposts will often tell you what these exceptions are. They vary from road to road and region to region.
Lesser seen single yellow lines indicate a shorter period of restriction such as daytime. Information plates will show the times that parking is and isn't allowed.
What does Derbyshire County Council say?
A spokesperson for Derbyshire County Council said: “We’re aware of the parking issues raised by Ms Pitt and our teams are working hard to resolve them. We’d encourage her to contact our Parking Enforcement Team with her concerns so we can identify the problem and cancel any Penalty Charge Notice, or help with any appeal, as required.
"She can do this through our call centre by ringing 01629 533190 and she’ll be put through to the team. Residents who would like us to investigate potentially putting in double yellow lines can email us at [email protected][4] “
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References
- ^ Queen Street in Belper, (www.derbytelegraph.co.uk)
- ^ Derbyshire County Council (www.derbytelegraph.co.uk)
- ^ Get all the latest Belper news here (www.derbytelegraph.co.uk)
- ^ [email protected] (www.derbytelegraph.co.uk)
- ^ Sign up to our newsletter here. (data.reachplc.com)