Pavement parking ban!

[Darcydog]

Originally Posted by HarryM1BYT

This came up recently in a legal group and if I understood correctly..


You can only be charged with an offence if there is a vehicle being blocked into the drive. There is no offence in parking across a drive if there is no vehicle blocked into the drive. Either way, it does have to have an official dropped kerb - as one unfortunate found in Hull, when there vehicle was blocked in their 'drive', by the council installing new bollards across the 'drive' entrance. No official dropped kerb it is not a drive entrance.

Yes - those that simply drive over the pavement to park on a cleared front garden have no right of access. It is very different if you have - as we do - an “official” dropped curb

[StewartIngram]

Regarding stopping on the road as mentioned above, my understanding is as follows.
The "road" is a "highway", in other words a means of moving from A to B. Thus it is not permitted to obstruct it, anywhere, ie park. (Words I have used are my definition, I'm sure some legal beagle can change things to be pedantically correct).
Obviously there then become exceptions to this rule. Stationary traffic in a queue, red (or amber) traffic lights, A policeman signalling you to stop, etc.
Yes you can stop to pick up a passenger, or drop them off, the overall rule is obstruction. But parking is another matter. Don't forget rules were made many many years ago in days of lighter traffic. Amendments have had to be made over time. The only places that you have a right to park, are those designated by signage and road markings.
So if anyone says that (signage apart of course) they have a right to park somewhere - eg outside their house - and add that you can't park there, they are wrong. No-one has the RIGHT to park there. It may be ok to park - obstruction being the legal deciding factor - but that is then for everybody.

[daveycooper]

Originally Posted by Darcydog

So how do I get my car onto the pavement now that my wand is broken?

Can you confirm that parking over someone’s drop curb is an offence? We tried to point this out to a mobile hairdresser lady who visited a neighbour without any success.ht as well.

Yes, you’ll have to get that wand fixed to comply with the law!

Re dropped kerbs: these are classed as an access. It agains comes down to determining what is ‘an obstruction’. In general, if someone is parked close to or slightly over or opposite your driveway and this causes difficulty getting in/out, it is unlikely to be classed as an obstruction. If the indiscriminate parking ‘prevents’ you gaining access, that would certainly be an obstruction.

Again it comes down to officer discretion. And of course it is difficult to take into account the driving ability (and car turning circle) of those using the driveway.

[daveycooper]

Originally Posted by StewartIngram

So if anyone says that (signage apart of course) they have a right to park somewhere - eg outside their house - and add that you can't park there, they are wrong. No-one has the RIGHT to park there. It may be ok to park - obstruction being the legal deciding factor - but that is then for everybody.

Correct.

People often put ‘no parking/private parking’ signs on their wall. If this is displayed towards a publicly adopted road it has no status whatsoever. In fact, the person who erected the sign could in theory be in breach of the highway act as they are providing a false instruction to highway users

[gnu]

You wouldn't be able to get down many of the residential streets around Bristol if you banned and enforced 'no pavement' parking. I think banning it is a bad idea, just enforce in the extreme cases.

[rab60bit]

Originally Posted by daveycooper

Yes, you’ll have to get that wand fixed to comply with the law!

Re dropped kerbs: these are classed as an access. It agains comes down to determining what is ‘an obstruction’. In general, if someone is parked close to or slightly over or opposite your driveway and this causes difficulty getting in/out, it is unlikely to be classed as an obstruction. If the indiscriminate parking ‘prevents’ you gaining access, that would certainly be an obstruction.

Again it comes down to officer discretion. And of course it is difficult to take into account the driving ability (and car turning circle) of those using the driveway.

"Gaining access" is not enforcable in terms of obstruction, preventing egress is a different matter however - but depends on the cop on the spot. I believe many forces have standing instruction not to bother about vehicles broaching a footpath unless/until it causes an accident. Slapping a load of fines notices every now and then might however make casual parkers and chancers think twice next time - then it usually moves the issue on to some other poor so and so's patch.

[planenut]

I walked up a local road an hour ago; seventy two vehicles, sixty eight parked straddling the kerb line, no road markings.

[MSS]

Originally Posted by gnu

You wouldn't be able to get down many of the residential streets around Bristol if you banned and enforced 'no pavement' parking. I think banning it is a bad idea, just enforce in the extreme cases.

This highlights the crux of the matter - that there isn't a simple resolution unless the root cause of the problem is addressed. This is that there are too many cars for the amount of available land per household.

[HarryM1BYT]

Originally Posted by planenut

I walked up a local road an hour ago; seventy two vehicles, sixty eight parked straddling the kerb line, no road markings.

Just looking out of my front house window - to the right are four vehicles in a row, all parked completely blocking any pedestrian use of the pavement, all associated with a house renovation taking place, 1x lorry, 1x large van, 2x cars. Too the left and surprise, surprise - there are 2x cars parked properly, but directly opposite each other, severally restricting the road width (based on the principle of - I live here, I will park here and NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD- anyone else).

[RobSun]

Where I live the houses were built in the 60s and a lot of the them are terraced without garages or the garages are at the rear with limited access or in blocks. Great planning for then but now as car ownership has grown the result is cars parked on pavements, blocking those of us who have drives at times, and arguments, all the usual complaints.

Earlier this year a man was seen by a neighbour on two occasions taking pictures of the offending cars. On the third time he approached him and asked what he was up to. We aren't a nosey lot but look after each other if we see something suspicious. Turns out he was from the council. I believe from this month a new By Law came into force where the Council can do some of the police's work. Primarily it covers anti social driving, a major issue in Bradford, just watch Channel 5 on a Monday night and the council will have the authority to issue fines. This amongst a raft of things includes parking on pavements and they were looking for the evidence so I expect in the not to distant future tickets will be issued.

Heavy handed, I think not when I regularly see mothers with pushchairs and young children forced into the road when collecting them from school. Older more feeble than myself and wheelchair users also in the road because residents and their visitors are inconsiderate to others and to lazy to walk a few yards further. I even had a visitor to a house up the street park on my drive. After finding who it was and making him move, his excuse was as the drive is double width, shared with next door who was parked on it, and he couldn't find anywhere close to park he would leave it on my drive. He said my neighbour could have moved his car to get my cars out and couldn't see what the problem was at all. The neighbour who was being visited was later full of apologies and we haven't seen the offender since.