the size of an ambulance?  The width that is?  We live down a private lane and the parking is getting ridiculous.  Since Christmas the number of cars has increased and people are squeezing their cars in across the entrance to the lane.  Now in the last year there were 3 call outs for the ambulance - we have a number of elderly residents.  The space that is left is just big enough for the cars to squeeze through - certainly not a fire engine.  Folks are starting to get irate and the police have been  informed.  However it is private land.  Tonight the narrowest gap was 7' 2".  Would an ambulance get through that?

Taking the average ambulance to be a converted ford transit as many are. The spec on the ford website says overall width including mirrors is 2374mm. What this converts to in feet and inches its too late for my brain to work.

I just asked my OH and he reckons it's just over 7.5 feet, please don't blame me if he's wrong :-D  He is usually good with measuring panels for his job

Paula

that is about 7'8" on the convertor - thanks - I aim to keep an eye on this and record the width when it looks dodgy. 

i do know that if a fire engine is blocked by cars from reaching a fire they can just go through the gap! i know this because it happened to me! my house was on fire and the fire engine left a trail of wingmirrors ...

So we have been told - in this case it would be the side of the car not just the wing mirrors.  I think I know who the owner is this time and this is a new car for him - why I ask myself does he get himself a bigger car when he has absolutely nowhere to park?  I don't want to fall out with anyone but a few neighbours are using silly talk now - probabally bravado to get us all going but when you hear things like light fires under the cars or shove them out of the way then you know that sensible action must be taken otherwise it will be war!  The police will only take action if there is likely to be a breach of the peace anyway, but it is one thing for the little community policewoman (who can't even knock on our door loud enough for the dog to bark!) to come out to see us but at night time they don't want to be bothered.  I am starting to gather evidence in case we need to put an injunction on anyone for persistent offending.  Civil action seems to be the only way if a gentle word in the ear by the above policewoman doesn't work.  It still won't win us any friends but parking has become a huge issue for so many residents here now with our narrow streets - so many folks don't have their own parking spaces - even the entrance to the church has 3 cars squashed in at nighttime.  People are reluctant to use some carparks because the cars get damaged at night (rumour has it that it is the folk who think they have the right to park there first - not kids) Others leave their bins out in the road to 'bag' places.  So I understand the problems these parkers have - however to block our only access road is wrong.

I bet these people would react differently if it was them that needed the ambulance. Wouldn't it be ironic if they do need an ambulance and it's their own car that blocks the paramedics getting through :-)
I was thinking, the ambulance could get as near as possible then run to the house - paramedics carry everything they need in the bag. Obviously this does not solve the problem but at least medical attention wouldn't be totally denied. In the meantime other people could knock on houses to get people to move cars.

Could you not ask the fire department to send someone out to have a safety check?

Or get some flyers made advising what would happen if the Fire department were needing to come up the street (nice new car, rather large garage bill to fix it ;-) ) My ex was a firefighter and he drove the engines wherever they had to go - if that meant through, or even over cars, that's what he would do...... :-D

Slightly off topic - my neighbour is a long distance lorry driver and he told me of a time when he had to go down a narrow road. There were double yellow lines on the road, and a parked car. All the local businesses were asked if they knew who owned the car (no-one did) and the policeman told my neighbour to just carry on driving - he would look the other way and not see what happened next ;-) The owner came out very quickly after that. She was the owner of one of the businesses and didn't want to get a parking fine. She got a very huge garage bill instead...... :-D :-D

I think that the law stands that this falls into the road traffic act and it is a violation to block access for emergency vehicles. It would be worth ring up the main police station and ask to speak to a traffic officer. Perhaps a general rule in their shell like ears will stop them blocking the access

As residents we will attend the local pact (community police thing) meeting that is held next week to find out exactly what the law says.  Non of the people parking in this area live along our lane - I wasn't the only one out measuring last night.  The owner of the car blocking the road has already been spoken to and he was apologetic - he is a decent guy - but some of these new folk are not so obliging.  My husband said to one - 'I hope you are not going to park there again'  to be told 'I might do'! 

The police should go and have words as it is classed as causing an obstruction. We have had the same problem here as we have two idiots that have a parking feud going on :-(

> do know that if a fire engine is blocked by cars from reaching a fire they can just go through the gap!

yep, they just shunt them out the way- average family car is no match for a fire engine lol.

We have so little space to shunt anything out of the way - the lane is narrow enough with a high wall on one side and a drop on the other.  Prescious time would be wasted moving vehicles out of the way.   Residents are getting organised - everyone is off to meet the community police officer at the pact meeting next week (don't know if anyone else has these -it stands for partners in community or something)  Normal show in one of these meetings is about 5 at most - the usual thing is a few youngsters getting drunk and rowdy - noise and nuisance from pubs on fri and sat.  So this will spice it up a bit!  I don't think they have had a whole street turn up before (minus one gentleman who isn't well enough to get there).

i think thats a good plan, good luck with it