Helen Skelton asks if she could put wheelie bins in road to stop parking outside house

3 weeks ago 2

BBC presenter Helen Skelton has been told in no uncertain terms that she would get into trouble for putting wheelie bins in the road in front of her house to stop people parking there.

A BBC expert has clarified that homeowners also cannot simply place a traffic cone outside their property to prevent others from parking there. On BBC Morning Live, solicitor Gary Rycroft addressed the issue of parking rights outside one's own home.

Responding to viewer Mary's query about whether she had the right to park in front of her house, he informed host Helen Skelton that the law does not support this: "If you own your house. If you rent your house, that's great. But you don't own or rent the road in front of your house. That is the public highway, and the clue is in the name.

"It's for the public. It's for all of us to use and to park there. Now. Sometimes there are restrictions on parking double yellow lines, of course, you can't block people's driveways

Sometimes councils introduce residence parking, so that means that only the residents can park there. But that's just reducing the cohort of people that can park there. They can park wherever they want within the residents zone, usually. So, no, you don't own the space in front of your house. And, Mary, you can park wherever you want."

When asked by Helen Skelton if individuals could take direct action to keep cars from parking there, such as placing a cone or wheelie bin outside their house, she queried: "But following on from that can you put a cone or a wheelie bin, for instance, Outside your house, I don't do it. But you can keep a space free?"

Gary was firm in his stance: "No, you can't put a wheelie bin or a cone. That is an offence under the Highways Act 1980 Section 137, you are blocking the public highway. You might be liable to a fine or a penalty charge notice or even imprisonment for blocking the public highway.

"I'd also like to know where's the cone come from? Because, actually, cones are dished out by the highways agency. So you shouldn't have a cone in the first place. So no, please. Seriously, you shouldn't be doing that. You're obstructing the highway."

However, he did concede one exception: "I'm gonna let you have one concession. If your daughter or son is getting married and they want to go to the wedding car on the morning, keep your space free in front of the cone. And that's the one event in life that I will let you have a cone or wheelie.", reports Lancs Live.

Julie, who lives in a block of flats, asked about neighbours using her parking space. Gary responded that the answer lies in the lease: "Parking laws also extend, of course, to private parking areas like flats. So we've been talking about the public highway but flats are private areas, and they're governed by the rules of the flats. Those rules are in the leases, so the leases are the rule book now."

According to the RAC, it’s legal to park outside anyone's home as long as these rules are followed: