Sky and Virgin Media have excelled themselves over the past two weeks around here. The driver of the Sky vehicle parked right across the pavement on a double-yellow line told me ‘he would park exactly where he wanted to’ (the message ‘lost’ on the side of the vehicles seems pretty appropriate in the circumstances). Neither of the three Virgin Media drivers I spoke to gave a damn.; the pair sitting waiting beside their vehicles which were completely blocking the pavement said they would leap up and move their vehicle at the first sign that a mother and child wanted to use the pavement (even though they were sitting so they wouldn’t see anyone trying to use the pavement anyway). The young driver who parked on the pavement on the double yellow outside the shop seemed to genuinely have no idea what the problem was. Do these companies give a damn? Do they have any policies on the subject? Should their Health and Safety policies not say that they should leave pavements clear? Should a driver who blocks a pavement not face an internal disciplinary process? Possibly we should ask companies for their policies for the environment, community and safety.
A Sky driver gets lost and ends up parked right across the pavement on a double yellow line!
Two Virgin Media vans right across the pavement – drivers not interested in moving them.
Virgin Media – blocking pavement on junction on double yellow – no problem for the driver
Pedestrian Liberation 
If the company don’t give a damn, they should! These are very poor adverts for their companies and tend to make me look for other companies to use. If enough people keep on complaining to the companies, they may take action just stop the complaints from coming in.
So many drivers appear to think that if they are on the pavement then the yellow lines don’t apply……FAIL! The yellow lines include the pavement so it’s doubly illegal, waiting where prohibited (yellow lines) and obstruction. The Virgin driver outside the Spar shop is also much to close to the junction.
I am consciously focusing some attention on these big companies in order to highlight their anti-social behaviour and encourage them to get their acts together. It will take hundreds of complaints from all over the country to start making a difference.
I wonder if we could get BBC Watchdog to take an interest in any particularly extreme examples at some point.
I don’t know if the Beeb or any local media will be interested in any parking complaints. It certainly appears that the police aren’t. I just received a reply from Sussex Police to complaints that I have made and have received the following reply;
“Graham, about a year ago or so CJU or CTSU the office responsible for pursuing tickets offences ruled that in the case of obstruction offences the ticket would only be pursued if the vehicle caused an obstruction to pedestrians. Not any obstruction to pedestrians, but such that a lady with pushchair or a wheelchair could not pass the obstructing vehicle .If either could pass then although technically an offence was comitted the office would not take the matter further.
In addition CPS has ruled that in the case of obstructions near a junction that the old BE41 Unnecessary Obstruction offence cannot be used and that Dangerous Position would be used instead. This of course means that the driver has to be present for the ticket to be issued.
These are the decisions by which we have to comply. Whilst I empathise with your viewpoint I am unable to ticket the majority of those vehicles you have photographed for the reasons I have given.
Roy
Sussex Police – Serving Sussex”
So, they admit that an offence has been committed but they are not interested in taking it any further. This is outrageous, they are saying that motorists have the right to infringe upon the rights of pedestrians and they will do nothing. that really is treating pedestrians as second class.
I saw a van parked on the pavement recently, and spoke to the driver who seemed to agree that he could have parked in the road without blocking it. Then – just to prove what a [insert appropriate term] he really was – he drove away, down the pavement!
Some Virginmedia vehicles I have seen do have dispensation to park on yellow lines when carrying out specific duties. Form these pictures its unclear if these vehicles are those that have the said dispensations from their local council.
And FYI – the first Virgin picture is are sub contractors vehicles, the second is Virginmedia staff one.
Thanks for the comment and further information. Regardless of whether they have dispensation or not – what I do know is that the drivers of thee vehicles were being rude and disrespectful to pedestrians. In both cases they could have been more considerate but for their own convenience chose not to be. Regarding subcontractors, I would suggest that the company with their branding all over the side of the vehicles needs to take responsibility for their actions.
Can Virgin supply a telephone number that I can ring to complain about the actions of one of their van drivers( registration YE 61 KPK) who used our garage area for turning round.This area is not a public road.My own vehicle was damaged recently by another
trespassing motorist
As someone who is in the know with Virgin Media, I can confirm that as said above, the smaller, older Transits belong to subcontractors (eg McNicholas, Fujitsu) who are not subject to Virgin’s parking policies. They do have the same dispensations as any other utilities company with infrastructure buried however.
Policy is to park vehicles legally when possible- so during installations, or where work which would not in any way endanger the public is being undertaken. Employees who receive PCN’s or FPN’s in these circumstances are liable personally for them.
Where work in cabinets or pits is being undertaken, drivers are advised to park in a ‘tactical’ manner- positioning vans as close to the pit or cabinet as possible in order to reduce danger to the public- using the van as a barrier if you like. In these circumstances, as reflected by several cases available for viewing from PATAs for instance, tickets are not often issued, and where they are the company will always appeal, generally successfully. As well as this, all drivers are subject to the restrictions enforced by various TMO’s/TRO’s, thus there is generally an exception for loading.
Looking at the above pictures, I would say that the picture of 2 vans parked suggests infrastructure work was to be undertaken (hence 2 vans being there- this generally happens only where technicians are to carry out repulls or cab work), and so the vans are parked in a legitimate manner.
In the second picture, I can’t guess why that vans there. Its possible that infrastructure work was being undertaken, but at the same time the driver could have went into the shop.
On a personal note, we are all human and at the end of the day, are responsible for our own actions- Virgin, Sky, BT drivers are just like the rest of us, and nobody can say that they park 100% perfectly every time. I know that I’ve had several tickets (and never had to pay any I might add- if we have to follow the rules then councils need to follow procedures and regulations as well!)
Many thanks for taking the time to explain this. I think it will be useful to make a distinction between storing vehicles on the highway and parking a vehicle on the highway to do essential nearby work. I am currently in Tokyo where you can’t buy a car unless you have a on-street parking place. As a result there is plenty of space for everyone, including people working on utilities.
If you look at the back and top of any virgin media van you will see the appropriate bra on lights and coloured chevrons … Making it clear the vehicle and driver are NASRA trained and vehicle is marked up as highway maintenance
Soo basicly they can park where ever they want