ILLEGAL parking in the suburbs and around local shopping precincts is out of control – and don’t get me started on parking at sporting fields on weekends!

It seems every second house has three cars (some more) that park daily “around” the property.

The problem I have with this is: “Why can’t you use the driveway?”

No, of course not; that would be silly – “Let’s park all over the place, so no one is parked-in when they want to leave”.

Dual occupancy and battle-axe locations are the worst – they have single-lane driveways, so the front-house occupants park all over the street.

Street parking blocks footpaths (breaks them up, too) and creates traffic hazards.

It’s common to see larger vehicles (4WD with trailers) and trucks at the smaller local shopping centres bumped up over the curbside. These vehicles are breaking up the curbing, footpath/paving the in-ground pit lids and trashing the landscaping (it’s amazing how often these heavier vehicles are “ACT Government” licence plates!).

Our rates have to pay to fix the damage caused by illegal parking – or it never gets repaired and our streets and local shops just look worse over time.

Do you also laugh when the sign post reads “15 Minute Parking”, which is disregarded as much as “Loading Zone” and “Taxi Only” areas?

What really gets me grumpy though is we have so many traffic laws aimed to prevent all this type of illegal parking – but it’s never actually enforced.

Grumpy is an occasional column dedicated to things that get up your nose. Readers are invited to vent (no more than 300 words, please) at editor@citynews.com.au