Right of Access.

[Mr Wiggy]

I live in the town square (Place) and around the perimeter the houses are situated leaving a spacious central area. Every September we have the Randonnée, this is accompanied by a fair which arrives the week prior and completely overrun the square, only this time they have gone too far as they have set up a vehicle cordon around the front of my house by means of a Scania tractor unit, a transit van plus it’s trailer. This blocking off is to save an area for their fellow compatriots who will arrive closer to the coming weekend. This has meant that there is no vehicle access to my property and the only way is on foot. This has to be a contravention of my rights of access?

I am now in the middle of drafting a letter to the Maire to complain about this situation and to inform him of what these people are doing, most of the residents are quite feed up with what is being allowed to go on as they are also being blocked in and unable to get their cars in and out. A few years ago an ambulance was called but couldn’t get to a patient and had to cart all their equipment on the strecher to get to the patient, because the square was blocked up by these peoples vehicles. Some thing has to be done as these people are getting completely out of hand.

[WendyG]

Hi

Surely this is a case for the gendamerie if there is no access to properties for the pompiers and ambulances.

Hope it all gets sorted out swiftly.

WendyG

[Fureys]

Wendy is absolutely right; since this is (I am assuming) la voie publique - which means exactly what it says - the public highway - and only the police or those acting under public authority are empowered to cordon or close off a public highway. You wouldn't need to go to the Mayor's office, the gendarmes are a better bet.

[pachapapa]

I would peruse first the Arrêté municipal thereto pertaining.

[Sunday Driver]

Just to clarify the situation, the Place at L'Absie consists of municipal gardens and a large public car park and is bounded on two sides by public streets.  The properties on the remaining two sides of the Place (where Wiggy's house is situated) have no vehicular access other than via the public car park. 

As per PPP, the maire will have issued the arrêté municipal closing off the car park for the duration of the fair. Best approach would be to get all the affected residents together to submit a joint complaint to the maire.

 

[Val_2]

Or the local DDE and the Prefecture. Take some photos as proof of the inconvenience but, make sure there isn't a public notice up in the local mairie warning residents of the forthcoming fair and to make other arrangements etc regarding their cars which does happen a lot here especially if the fair is an old established tradition going back centuries. The next village to us,has a fair for the Aug 15th feriée, they too block houses around the attractions with large HGV's that they use to power the rides and supply the equipment but people just get on with it and put their cars out of the way.

[Mr Wiggy]

At the moment there is access onto the square, the cordon is directly in front of my house, no other houses are affected but mine, blocking off any vehicle access to my house as you turn onto the square.This is the only time of the year when a crime is committed!!!

[Chancer]

So having read SD's description Mr Wiggy am i correct in thinking that you are saying you can access the car park but not park right directly in front of your property?

Apologies if I have misunderstood but if the above is the case what is your greivance or loss if you dont actually have vehicular access to your property in the form of a drive, garage or parking? I trust that you were joking in saying that a crime had been committed.

My property is at the end of a terrace of commercial properties, mainly abandoned, but for the fact that I have a driveway, garage and parking I would have no vehicular access or even wheelchair/pushchair access as everybody quite legally parks on the trottoir effectively blocking my front door, when I know I need particular access, for example when I moved furniture in or when I was working on scaffolding on the facade i put up my own barricades, no involvement or permission from the police or the mairie.

I recall when Prince Charles and Camilla visited to lay a wreath for the 90th anniversary of the battle of the Somme my road was closed by the Gendarmes to allow them to pass through at high speed, and boy was it quick! There was absolutely no question of me being able to access or leave my property by car.I recently found that google streetview had passed my place and tne images were very flattering being taken from the road but from a height something i would have to be suicidal to do myself, I sent the link to friends in the UK and were shocked at how many responded with outrage that there were cars parked all along the frontage of my property, maybe its a british thing, i dont know, my boundary is the front wall, i dont own the trottoir and cars are free to park on it, its the pedestrians that dont have any rights as can be witnessed on the passage pietons either side of me.

Finally pretty much every lunch hour in the week I will find my car, garage and parking blocked in by vehicles parking so the occupants can eat in the brasserie/routier 2 doors down, every now and then i have a purge and clamp them and refuse to release them for the afternoon, it usually sends out a good message but these things are soon forgotten when a Frenchmans stomach rumbles. I am just glad that I dont have a tabac or boulangerie beside me................. yet [:(]

[Sunday Driver]

[quote user="Mr Wiggy"]

This is the only time of the year when a crime is committed!!!

[/quote]

Perhaps you'd be better off writing to Hercule Poirot rather than the maire.....[:P]

 

[woolybanana]

Surely, you want to get to see the mayor asap and do a bit of diplomatic table thumping. It may be that the vehicle in question has been put in the wrong place.

[pachapapa]

[quote user="Val_2"]Or the local DDE and the Prefecture. Take some photos as proof of the inconvenience but, make sure there isn't a public notice up in the local mairie warning residents of the forthcoming fair and to make other arrangements etc regarding their cars which does happen a lot here especially if the fair is an old established tradition going back centuries. The next village to us,has a fair for the Aug 15th feriée, they too block houses around the attractions with large HGV's that they use to power the rides and supply the equipment but people just get on with it and put their cars out of the way.[/quote]

Quite right! I remember only too well the inconvenience of the Pack Monday Fair in Sherborne,Dorset in my youth.

[Mr Wiggy]

I must point out that this area in question isn’t where the fair is situated, that is in the upper sections of the square which are 4  individual car parks, it’s where their accommodation trailers and caravans are all parked in the lower section where the residential area is. This is where the only access is the road from the island at the top of the hill past the square to the church. There is an access to where the lorry park is situated, which can be used but that is further down the high street, this is also the exit road for two of the 4 car parks at the top of the square.

What concerns me and others is, a couple of years ago there was an emergency in the square when an elderly resident required urgent medical treatment, but the ambulance wasn’t able to reach the house in question because these same people were parked willy-nilly all over the square, no orderly parking, they simply park where they want.

They don’t seem to give a damn for the residents, because they are permitted to be there. For this reason alone the residents are talking of having more control over the way these people are behaving as there are also complaints over the way they dispose of their waste water which for some reason includes some grease from these trailers and caravans being let to drain across the square and going into the storm drainage system.

[Hoddy]

I wonder if there is the equivalent of an organisation something like the Showmans Guild which organises these things in England. They recognise the need not to upset the locals and keep these things under very tight control.

We have a number of these charter fairs around us in England and they are always well organised and there is no free for all for getting the best spots for example.

If there is such an organisation maybe you could contact them.

Hoddy

[Chancer]

[quote user="Mr Wiggy"]

What concerns me and others is, a couple of years ago there was an emergency in the square when an elderly resident required urgent medical treatment, but the ambulance wasn’t able to reach the house in question because these same people were parked willy-nilly all over the square, no orderly parking, they simply park where they want.

They don’t seem to give a damn for the residents, because they are permitted to be there. For this reason alone the residents are talking of having more control over the way these people are behaving as there are also complaints over the way they dispose of their waste water which for some reason includes some grease from these trailers and caravans being let to drain across the square and going into the storm drainage system.

[/quote]

You have changed your tune a bit since your first posting Mr Wiggy :

only this time they have gone too far as they have set up a vehicle cordon around the front of my house by means of a Scania tractor unit, a transit van plus it’s trailer. This blocking off is to save an area for their fellow compatriots who will arrive closer to the coming weekend. This has meant that there is no vehicle access to my property and the only way is on foot. This has to be a contravention of my rights of access?

Perhaps it would be better to talk to the Mairie about your real concerns than trying to noyer le poisson, a huge percentage of the French population live in apartments or HLM's that ambulance crews could only reach on foot, it sounds like but for this week or weekend of the fête you have better access than most, I think that during the fête these people are the residents of the square.

[Mikep]

Vive la France!

They have a fair in Thonon les Bains every year which closes the town for a week. It used to be hell to get through and impossible to get round, but they've spoiled the fun by building a ring road. The fair's been going on for hundreds of years, so it was no use complaining - sounds like it may be the same here.