Purposefully blocking cars in an industrial estate. Is this Section 137 willful obstruction?

ace275

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Hi all

Having an issue in our industrial estate. We're part of a large area of units, and as our office has been expanding we've more cars than previously. The tenant opposite has been renting part of the carpark outside his own office to allow people to part 40ft lorry trailers, but he's not happy with our expansion and deems half the carpark belongs to us, and half belongs to him, which although sounds fair, there is no legal bias for this and he just thinks it belongs to him. In reality, he only has control of the footprint of his unit and not the grounds outside, similar to ourselves. I've checked land registry and no boundarys are shown other than the units

Anyway, on occassion he has now taken to instructing the lorrys to just park our cars in and left an audi blocked by 3 trailers for nearly a week

I can see how this MAYBE goes against the following, which is police backed

Section 137 Highways Act 1980 wilful obstruction of the free passage along a highway.

137Penalty for wilful obstruction.​

(1)If a person, without lawful authority or excuse, in any way wilfully obstructs the free passage along a highway he is guilty of an offence and liable to [F1imprisonment for a term not exceeding 51 weeks or] a fine [F2or both].

[F3(1A)In relation to an offence committed before the coming into force of section 281(5) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 (alteration of penalties for certain summary offences: England and Wales), the reference in subsection (1) to 51 weeks is to be read as a reference to 6 months.

(1B)For the purposes of this section it does not matter whether free passage along the highway in question has already been temporarily restricted or temporarily prohibited (whether by a constable, a traffic authority or otherwise).

(1C)In subsection (1B), “traffic authority” has the same meaning as in the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 (see section 121A of that Act).]

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The question is.... Does a publically assessible, but somewhat private bit of land, count as a highway? There are units here open to the public, so they're welcome to drive in. It's not closed off, during the day at least, but I'm unsure if anyone locks the gates from the road by night.

I'd like to get all my facts straight incase I need to approach him about blocking in vehicles. And I haven't even started on the ridiculous number of punctures we're all somehow getting too
 

karl7900

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I can’t advise on the parking problem but if you suspect he is causing the sudden increase of punctures then I’d get a couple of cameras up asap in case/ before the situation escalates
 

ace275

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I can’t advise on the parking problem but if you suspect he is causing the sudden increase of punctures then I’d get a couple of cameras up asap in case/ before the situation escalates
Annoyingly we have really good CCTV cameras as we're in the security industry, but they don't record as they're demo units. Going to throw an NVR on them though myself
 

dddrrift

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a mutual 50/50 on the outside space sounded fair? If your business is outgrowing the place you are in, maybe its time to look for a bigger unit/yard as opposed to pissing off everyone around where you are currently?
 

ace275

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a mutual 50/50 on the outside space sounded fair? If your business is outgrowing the place you are in, maybe its time to look for a bigger unit/yard as opposed to pissing off everyone around where you are currently?
Yeah we try to stick to that, and we have a second unit we're splitting some staff to, but sometimes we're maybe a little over 50% in the meantime and he's just being a total pratt over it and blocking people in.

He doesn't have many vehicles, but just charges some lorries to park their trailers which realistically it's not his to rent out
 

cupraricky

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He doesn't have many vehicles, but just charges some lorries to park their trailers which realistically it's not his to rent out
If the lorry trailers being parked aren't his, contact the company who owns them (if they are sign written) requesting their removal due to blocking cars in
 

ace275

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If the lorry trailers being parked aren't his, contact the company who owns them (if they are sign written) requesting their removal due to blocking cars in
Good call, though many are plain and unbranded not all of them are
 

Jet9

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The question is.... Does a publically assessible, but somewhat private bit of land, count as a highway? There are units here open to the public, so they're welcome to drive in. It's not closed off, during the day at least, but I'm unsure if anyone locks the gates from the road by night.
If it counted as a highway then the trailers could be lawfully parked there without paying a fee.
 

Gavlar

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Sounds civil rather than criminal as I doubt Roads Service maintain it? NI is covered under Road Traffic (NI) Order
 

impact

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If you are both tenants surely there is a contract with the management company that clearly defines some sort of rules/rights? Assuming the car park is owed by the management company also? I'd be speaking to them if there no talking to the other guy, trying to sort it out amicably before starting on anything else
 

ace275

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Sounds civil rather than criminal as I doubt Roads Service maintain it? NI is covered under Road Traffic (NI) Order

We have the Road Traffic act and the Highways act. All roads are highways, but not all highways are roads.

But are all publicly accessible carparks seen as highways? Can find anything to say yes or no

If you are both tenants surely there is a contract with the management company that clearly defines some sort of rules/rights? Assuming the car park is owed by the management company also? I'd be speaking to them if there no talking to the other guy, trying to sort it out amicably before starting on anything else
Some rent units, but as far as I know we own ours, purchased outright but I'm not sure if there is a management company as such
 

Gavlar

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We have the Road Traffic act and the Highways act. All roads are highways, but not all highways are roads.

But are all publicly accessible carparks seen as highways? Can find anything to say yes or no


Some rent units, but as far as I know we own ours, purchased outright but I'm not sure if there is a management company as such
Near sure Highways Act doesn't apply to NI

@brocks @avo5021
 

impact

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Some rent units, but as far as I know we own ours, purchased outright but I'm not sure if there is a management company as such

Then surely deeds state your boundaries, rights to carpark, rights of way etc? There's usually some entity that owns the land if its not public, it will be listed on deeds and usually not hard to find out who its changed hands too if sold on.
 

stevieturbo

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Any cheap road legal junkers that you can block in his trailers then ?

or have you any vehicles that can take his trailers for a drive ?
 

stevieturbo

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Would moving them not be technically theft.

No, theft is the act of deliberately and permanently depriving someone of their stuff.

Simply moving it somewhere else....isn't doing that.

Not sure if there is a taking without the owners consent...but again, you don't need to move it far, just far enough.
To park trailers the land has to be registered as an "operating centre" so if its not then that is an easy way to get them removed.


Do they class the truck, or the trailer as the HGV, or both ?
 

Paddy_R

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No, theft is the act of deliberately and permanently depriving someone of their stuff.

Simply moving it somewhere else....isn't doing that.

Not sure if there is a taking without the owners consent...but again, you don't need to move it far, just far enough.


Do they class the truck, or the trailer as the HGV, or both ?

Correct on the theft aspect (well close enough for here anyway).

Just moving it could be seen as taking it without the owners consent however this is more like to fall under vehicle tampering if you were to move them.

This also sounds like a private car park on a industrial estate and as such it's unlikely any parking rules and regs will apply.

We don't have any Acts if I remember my training from 24 years ago🤣

Not quite. We have a few acts of parlament that are applicable to NI, most are orders of the NI assembly though.
 

Wild Thing

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Amg is 100% bang on in this and you can call the haulage operators bluff very easily. Its all down to what DOE have granted him to use the unit for. An example would be 1 lorry with 2 trailers up to skys the limit. It is all to do with their operators licence and operating centre. No way will DOE allow the use of a car park as part of an operating centre. Very easily resolved if you nudge him in correct direction. If not jugular and he will lose his operating centre or worse.
 

AMG

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Do they class the truck, or the trailer as the HGV, or both ?

That's an interesting one!

Trailer has to be on an operators licence to be able to be used for hire or reward, and the trailer has to be parked on a specified place on the operators licence.

IE if i have my house registered as an operating centre with my trucks and trailers registered to it, then you cannot legally park your truck at my address unless it is specified in your own operator licence.

As @Wild Thing has said, it is very unlikely that a public car park is an operating centre, so that should be easily sorted.
 

ace275

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Trailer has to be on an operators licence to be able to be used for hire or reward, and the trailer has to be parked on a specified place on the operators licence.

IE if i have my house registered as an operating centre with my trucks and trailers registered to it, then you cannot legally park your truck at my address unless it is specified in your own operator licence.

As @Wild Thing has said, it is very unlikely that a public car park is an operating centre, so that should be easily sorted.
Thanks, great help. Nice to have that card up our sleeve if he continues to block cars in, but we'll try and keep it civil before it comes to that
 
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