Here is an interesting insight into our culture. Scene. A car parked in residential street in Ipswich well across the pavement next to a lamp post on which there is a sign warning of a £1,000 fine for letting your dog poo on the pavement. Ipswich Borough Council recently even pledged to ‘wage war against irresponsible dog owners‘. Clearly the council means business when it comes to dog poo!
Unfortunately this is not the case when it comes to ‘fly-parked’ cars littering the pavement. There is no effective legislation to stop it and the Borough Council doesn’t even mention that pavement and verge parking should be avoided on their website. Imagine how different things would be if there was also a £1,000 fine for leaving a car on the pavement! People would certainly stop doing and would also probably look back wistfully to a time when the maximum fine was £30 – £70.
£1,000 fine for dog poo but cars allowed
Dog poo on the pavement is taken very seriously
Pedestrian Liberation 
Ah, well it wouldn’t do for people to risk getting dog poo on their cars would it? After all, our towns and cities are for cars, not for people with pets…
As a Cyclist I rail against the inequity of enforcement of a long standing and well drafted law – Namely the Highways Act 1835, and in particular section 72. With fine forethought the highways act uses the term carriage and in 1882 the cycle was included and 1903 saw the recognition of the motor car in the category.
Driving or riding a carriage on a footway is an activity which is antisocial and puts pedestrians at risk yet we have the farce of this offence being committed by every car user who parks on a footway, but the Police refusing to prosecute unless the driver is actually caught driving. Cyclists on the other hand are disportionately prosecuted and fined compared to the numbers committing this offence and the proof is in the review of how many deaths and injuries arise from cars being driven on the footway compared with the lack of any reports in most years relating to cycles.
Why can’t the Police take the same line on s.72 as they do with speeding. A car caught on camera exceeding the speed limit will mean that the owner gets fined and penalty points even though they are not positively shown to be the driver, unless they provide details of the actual driver’s identity.
So why isn’t this done for footway parking – the same fixed penalty fine handed out like confetti to cyclists,sent to the registered keeper of the vehicle, who then has the option to declare the driver’s identity. Given – by observation – that a far greater number of car drivers ‘drive a carriage on the footway’ than cyclists I can only hope we can start doing this as soon as possible.
No fines for parking on the pavement? Down in Croydon it’s a ticketable offence by those lovely “Civic Enforcement Officers” if you car is parked on the pavement and it’s not a designated pavement parking bay. In fact my parents once picked up a ticket as their rear car tyre was on the pavement by about an inch whilst it was parked between plant beds at the front of the drive!
Croydon is within London which virtually unique in the UK in that there is clear legislation already in place that makes parking on pavements an offense. Outside London the problem is a lot worse and the police have very few effective powers. See “the Law’ section for more details of this.
http://www.eastsussex.gov.uk/roadsandtransport/parking/policies/policy.htm
This is a link to the policy document for East Sussex County Council. If you click on Parking Policy 2010 it brings up a pdf document. I read this last night and was amazed to read the policy in regard to pavements;
Footway (Pavement) and Verge Parking
A PCN will be issued for the contravention of parking on the pavement or grass verge in the following circumstances:
. throughout a controlled area
. elsewhere in a special parking area if there is an existing restriction on the road, such as yellow lines
. HGV parked on the footway, verge or central reservation
. if no restrictions are on the road but the area is appropriately signed
CEOs are instructed to issue a PCN only where one or more of the vehicle tyres are wholly on the pavement, verge or causing an obstruction on the pavement.
First off it’s good to see that they only need to see one wheel on the pavement, I don’t see there being any reason for any wheels to be on the pavement.
Second, I don’t quite understand the bullet point 4, are they saying that they will only issue a PCN if there are signs up stating that pavement parking isn’t allowed?
Third, what do they consider constitutes an obstruction? For me, the mere fact that it is on the pavement constitutes an obstruction and this was agreed by the magistrates when tickets I issued were challenged.
Last point, I do like their policy on cycle lane parking.
Cycle Tracks
The vehicle will be in contravention if it is wholly or partly parked on a cycle track. A PCN will be issued immediately without a period of observation being necessary.
PCN’s will only be issued if the area is ‘appropriately signed’ because where there is no signing they can do nothing outside London and a few other places unless the parking is causing an obstruction. Unfortunately (or fortunately if you are a motorist) ‘obstruction’ is very poorly defined in law and has is interpreted differently by different police forces and is open to challenge in court. See ‘The Law’ section for more details of this.
Thank you for the response Peter, very interesting to be made aware of that. I’m not a great fan of the CEO’s in our area as they regularly overlook a few cars that park illegally whilst ticketing other but I’m already raising that with the parking department at the council.
As for the definition of obstruction I was recently walking down a road that allows on-pavement parking (it’s a residential road but also a bus route so needs to be able to accomodate 2 buses passing) and one car was parked so far on the pavement that they tyre that was still on the road was touching the kerb! I managed to get past with our trolley but a mother with a wide buggy would have never got through.
It is shocking the rights of the motorist to leave their cars where they please is being threatened in this way. Just imagine what it would be like if we changed out streets to give priority to people who are not motorist!
@Bassjunkieuk
Unfortunately, parking as you describe (one wheel only just on the road) is becoming more and more common. I have had real problems in getting my local police force to take this seriously, as long as the traffic is moving they just don’t care about pedestrians.
Probably becuase standing in shit is worse than having to walk past a car.