I have just submitted a Freedom of Information request to Suffolk Constabulary to find out how many people have been prosecuted for ‘driving on the footway’ and for ‘obstructing’ of the footway over the past 2 years in the county. I am expecting the number of to quite low, indeed for driving on the footway it am expecting it be very low even though every car parked on the pavement was most clearly also driven on and off the pavement as well!
I have asked Suffolk Constabulary because they are my local police force, not because I think they are particularly bad – indeed I am very impressed with my local seargent who is both supportive and knowledgeable on the subject.
FOI request – Suffolk Constabulary
Pedestrian Liberation 
I was going to ask when a response could be anticipated, but then I noticed that they must respond by March 11th.
I look forward to the response.
One curious thing that I don’t understand, is IIRC a vehicle parked on a pavement isn’t treated as evidence that it’s been driven on the pavement, for the purpose of prosecution.
Julian Huppert (Lib Dem Cambridge) asked that exact question in the commons in January 2011. See transcript here.
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2011-01-21a.1199.0
Peter
Following a follow-up query by them their response is now expected by 22 March 2011.
Suffolk police do not seem to be uniformly knowledgeable about parking restrictions as is demonstrated by this story from one of the local rags:
http://www.eveningstar.co.uk/news/police_sorry_for_parking_row_1_660529
What a great story. As you say the police van shouldn’t have been there and they should have apologised sooner. I have made a note of the story for a post at some point. Thanks.
That is just so typical. It really is no wonder that everyone appears to believe that they can just park how and where they like when they witness the police, who are supposed to be enforcing the law, breaking the law and behaving like this.
The response from the officers was also very typical in trying to intimidate the driving instructor, rather than accepting that they were in the wrong and apologising.