Residents divide opinion by taking 'sinister' revenge on cars parked in street

27 February 2024 , 17:37

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The sign was spotted on a few vehicles parked on the street (Image: Bristol Live/BPM MEDIA)

Residential street parking can be a nightmare at the best of times - but there's one road where the residents will make it known you can't park there.

After getting fed up with cars being parked on their street, the disgruntled homeowners decided to take matters into their own hands and leave some pretty passive-aggressive notes letting the drivers know how they felt about them using their street to park on.

The fuming neighbours started to regularly spot cars parking on the street and slapped notes on the windscreens telling them to park elsewhere - and wrote them on behalf of the "Residents of British Road" in Bristol. However it seemed as if not all of the residents agreed with the extreme measures taken.

Residents were divided about the approach (Bristol Live/BPM MEDIA)

The angry notes appeared one morning, and read: "Dear vehicle owner/driver. The residents of British Road have noticed that you park on this street regularly, yet do not live on the street. Please be mindful of the residents who wish to park near their own properties," and added: "We respectfully ask you to park your vehicle on the street that you live on, in future."

One of the cars which had the note attached to was an unmarked grey van, which had a "BT engineer on call" sign inside the vehicle dashboard. The parking warning had a hand-written addition to the pre-printed notice, reading: "YOU DO NOT WORK FOR BT!!!"

'I don't want children staying up late at weekends - I really need adult time'

Another hand-written note, which was attached to the back of a van, claimed the vehicle had been left unattended for months, and added: "Help yourself." The numerous messages have left residents divided, because unless they are breaching any parking restrictions, you are legally permitted to leave your vehicle on any street.

One resident of British Road, who wished to remain anonymous, deemed the move "sinister," BristolLive reports. She said: "Parking is an absolute nightmare around here, and people spend a lot of time driving around looking for a space, so I understand people get frustrated, but this is a bit sinister.

"Whoever wrote this does not speak for everyone on this road at all. How do they know the people who own those vehicles don't live nearby? Do they keep watch all the time, and then follow them to see where they go when they park up? As a woman driver, I'd be worried if that appeared on my car, wondering who was following me to check where I lived."

Another note was spotted on a van (Bristol Live/BPM MEDIA)

She continued: "And because parking is a nightmare here, you do sometimes have to park a fair distance away from where you live. There are too many cars and not enough street. But the main thing is, whoever posted this note doesn't seem to realise they have no greater claim over the road outside where they live than anyone else.

"It's not their road, it's everyone's. There's no residents' parking scheme here, there's no restrictions, people can park where they like for however long they want. If this notice-writer wants to guarantee they can park their car outside their home, they need to move to a house with its own drive."

Recently a woman was left "shaken" after finding a threatening note on her car, which she had left in a "perfectly legal" spot. The handwritten note appeared to be from a disgruntled neighbour telling the driver to pay for a car park instead of taking a "valuable" space outside their home in Oldham, Greater Manchester.

Ariane Sohrabi-Shiraz