Cars, fly-tipping or graffiti

 
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Abandoned cars

If you are concerned that a vehicle near to your home or on your estate may be abandoned, please report this to your local council. You can do this via the links below:

Bedford Borough Council

Central Bedfordshire Council

Milton Keynes Council

North Northants Council

West Northants Council

Fly-tipping

If you have noticed items you believe have been fly-tipped, start by speaking to your neighbours to see if the items are theirs and they have already made arrangements to clear.

If you have made enquiries and no-one knows, you can take the following action.

  • If the items are on our land, please contact us and attach a photo if possible. Once we receive your report, we will arrange to get them removed. This may take up to four weeks.
  • If the item is not on our land, please contact the Local Authority who will arrange to get it removed.

Graffiti

Graffiti is an offence of criminal damage and can be reported to the Police; however they will not remove it.

Is the graffiti is personally targeted towards you or your family?

If the graffiti is abusive or racist, we will arrange to remove within one working day, otherwise this may take up to four weeks.

If the graffiti is not on our land, please contact the Local Authority who will arrange to get it removed.

Parking

Please be considerate when you park your vehicle and avoid causing any obstruction to other drivers, pedestrians or emergency services. Try not to block people in or park in a way that makes it difficult for other people to get in or out of parking spaces.

Vehicles should not be parked or driven on any grassed amenity area, also please do not park on any communal garage forecourt or pathway.

There are many areas of shared parking and spaces cannot be reserved or allocated to individuals. These spaces are not for vehicles such as caravans, motor homes, boats, trailers, heavy goods vehicles, buses, mini buses and vehicles with a Statutory Off Road Notice.

Obstructive parking

If your neighbour is parking in a manner which obstructs your ability to enter/leave your home and/or allocated parking space, start by speaking to them first, they may not be aware their actions are causing you a problem.

If the problem continues then you can take the following action:

  • If it  is on a public verge or highway and the vehicle is found to be parked contravening local parking regulations contact your local authority who may be able to assist by issuing a Penalty Charge notice.
  • If it  is parked in such a manner where it needs to be removed immediately, please contact the Police who will arrange this if deemed necessary.
  • Although Grand Union cannot intervene in parking disputes, if both you and your neighbour agree we can make a referral to an independent mediation service to help you sort out your differences. Please contact us so we can make the necessary referral.

Repairing vehicles

This refers to the offence of repairing vehicles in the street is aimed at those carrying out repairs as part of running a vehicle repair business and not individuals repairing their own cars/bikes).

If you are being disturbed by a neighbour carrying out repairs, start by speaking to them, they may not be aware they are disturbing you.  If the problem continues and you believe an offence is occurring then you can either:

  1. If it is on a public highway, contact the local authority who can investigate and consider action under the Clean Neighbourhood and Environment Act 2005.
  2. If it is on land owned by GUHG and they are causing a persistent noise nuisance, please refer to our noise nuisance section for guidance.

Speeding or dangerous vehicles

if you believe that a Road Traffic Offence has been committed, such as speeding or dangerous driver, you should report the incident and circumstances as soon as possible to your local Police.

Some local authorities can install traffic calming measures to improve road safety.  These may include road humps, chicanes, traffic islands etc.  The local authority will decide whether a road needs traffic calming and, if so, which measures are most suitable. The specific traffic problem will dictate the location, type and size of traffic calming measures. These are usually chosen after discussion with road safety officers, local residents and the emergency services, they may conduct an independent study to assess the problem.