Parking a bus on your driveway

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From Devon Live which I picked up from a Facebook share by another member 

Woman given 'ASBO' after row over 'bus' parked on her drive

A woman who parked a double decker bus on her drive to turn it into a cafe is being forced to move it after complaints from neighbours. Wendy Salmon put the vehicle outside her home at the end of her leafy cul-de-sac in a Surrey street on a tempoary basis to renovate it.

But she has now been slapped with an 'ASBO' type order and told to remove it - after neighbours said it was 'ruining the ambience'. She has accused neighbours of 'rallying' the others on the street against her by complaining it was an eyesore.

And despite the council accepting she was 'not breaking any laws' she has been hit with a CPN, formerly known as an ASBO, and ordered to remove it by June 20 following a bitter two year legal battle. Mother-of-two Wendy, 55, who runs a pub, described the situation as 'ridiculous' and accused neighbours of being 'curtain twitchers' who 'act like they own the street.'

I have some sympathy with Wendy Salmon ... at our former home we had a London Taxi parked on the driveway (it was our regular car) and these days we have an ambulance and a paramedic support vehicle.  We did clear that with the nearest neighbours before either arrived, and the biggest issue we have had is friends' and contacts' concerns that we're OK and not suffering medical emergencies.

This also reminds me of the story of the chap who drove his car to the pub one evening and had a few pints too many. Advised to leave the car at the pub and take the bus home.  And he said that was very wise advise, because the police were stopping cars on the road home checking for drunk drivers, but they just waved the bus through.  He found it more difficult to explain to his wife the next morning why there was a bus parked outside.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Another story, on similar lines.

Two drunks, very late at night, wanting to get home from the pub.  Walking past the by then deserted bus station, one of them suggested that they could use a bus to get home, and he went into the yard.  After a lot of starting and stopping engine noises, the other drunk eventually went into the yard to ask, "Mick, what are you doing?" Mick replied, "I'm trying find a Number 49".   

[Chris from Nailsea]

... at our former home we had a London Taxi parked on the driveway (it was our regular car) and these days we have an ambulance and a paramedic support vehicle.

I happen to know that paramedic support vehicle personally.  It is a large and heavy 4x4, which broke down (electrics completely gone) and it took three of us (the paramedic, his wife and me) to push it off grahame's gravel drive, out of the way, ready to be recovered by a garage.

Personally, I found it all very funny, but the paramedic operator himself was so embarrassed.