20/08/2026
IF your names not JAMES you can't park here
A man has been ordered to remove a parking space he painted on the road after a row on his local Facebook group got out of hand.
James Smith, 47, says he had parked in the same spot outside his home for six years without any problems until he returned from work one afternoon and found another car in it.
Unable to find the owner, James posted on his local Facebook group asking if anyone knew who had โparked in my space.โ
โI only wanted to know whose car it was,โ he said. โBut everyone thought it was funny. I got loads of abuse saying it's a public road and anyone can park there.โ
After the post, James decided to settle the matter by buying white road-marking paint and creating his own bay with the words, JAMES PARKING ONLY.
However, the new space quickly became a source of entertainment on the Facebook group, and James claims people started deliberately parking in it.
โHardly anyone parked there before. Now there's someone in it all the time. They're doing it to wind me up.โ
James confronted one driver as he returned to his car and politely asked him not to park there again.
โHe told me to โsod off and stop being a sad git,โ then drove off.โ
Things got worse when an anonymous member of the Facebook group uploaded a photo of James standing outside his house with his hands on his hips, staring at a car parked in the space.
โThe photo got dozens of laughing faces,โ James said. โPeople need to grow up.โ
Someone then reported the homemade bay to the council, who informed James that he cannot reserve part of a public road for himself and ordered him to remove the markings.
James says he is now reluctantly looking into ways of removing the road paint and has decided to take a break from the Facebook group.
โThis country has gone to the dogs,โ he said.
โI'll be staying off Facebook for a while.โ