Can you believe it; we now have a 20 tonne double-decker public service operating a school service being parked up on the pavement. Did the driver apologise and move the vehicle when requested to move by a reader of this blog? Err… no, in fact he evidently got pretty agitated about having the photograph being taken and has kept on doing it. What do the local enforcement guys and the DfT say? Well, err, only that there is nothing that they can do because is it a PSV, not an HGV you see. What I do know, is that the council will be paying for this school-bus service twice. Once to run the service and then again to repair the damage to the pavement caused by such a heavy vehicle. Possibly the council should just suggest that the company either behaves or loses their schools’ contract.
Umm. double decker up on the pavement!
Here is another view of the vehicle. Large isn’t it! We have disguised the operator’s name on the photos, and would request that if any bus expert reading this is able to identify the operator that they keep that information to themselves as we are trying a direct route to the management which should work based on what I know about the company. They will then hopefully have a quiet word with the driver and I think the problem will be fixed. If not then the vehicle will be back when school restarts in the Autumn and we will have to try something else.
Big isn’t it. Not doing a lot of good to the pavement either.
Pedestrian Liberation 
This bus is parked on a single yellow line. Which a parking attendant could issue a parking ticket for?
There being a shortage of Parking Attendants. Could a photo of bus with Registration Number clearly shown be sent to Your Councils Parking Enforcement Department. Be enacted upon. (“Sent a Parking Ticket through the post.”)?
Driver may have left about enough room for pedestrians to pass it on pavement. So might not be guilty of an obstruction?
The road looks quiet. There seems to be plenty of room to park on road? Don’t understand why Bus had to be Parked on Pavement.
Apart from the damage bus will cause pavement. And maybe utilities which are underground. Which will eventually need to repair.
Do you have any other concerns about bus being on Pavement?
Is it Parking over a dropped kerb used by pedestrians, Or a School Crossing Point, During School Days?
OK, the first rule in relation to legislation around parking is that it is all designed to be useless, or interpreted to be toothless.
For example: the above vehicle is not ‘parked’ it is ‘waiting’ and yellow lines do not stop people waiting. Secondly, it is not obstruction because no one is being obstructed at this moment, and even if they there was someone in a wheelchair who was not able to use the pavement then police often say that people can use the road so there is still no obstruction!
There do not appear to be any dropped kerbs on the section of road, but I failed to get my local police to act against a driver who was regularly parking his new Jaguar on a raised crossing outside a school (the same legal thing as a dropped kerb) for over a year at which point he moved. To make it worse, I was assured by driver that the police has told him it was OK to park on the crossing. Earlier the police had told me that they had no idea it was illegal at all (the law was only passed in 2009 after all).
Regarding to damage to utilities, that is certainly a possible outcome, but the authorities often prefer to avoid confronting motorists and just get us to pay for the resulting damage in due course througb our utility bulls or council tax bills.
Actually, yellow lines do stop people waiting. For instance, the actual offence on double yellow lines is “waiting where prohibited” (code BL01). For single yellow lines, waiting is prohibited at the times specified.
As for obstruction, the rules Sussex Police used to use (less than 10 years ago when I was working for them) was that a pedestrian had the legal right to walk in a straight line along the pavement. Anything that caused said pedestrian to deviate from that straight line was an obstruction.
The problem is getting the police (or anyone) to actually take this matter seriously. I thought I was getting somewhere but now my local force (still Sussex Police, but I no longer work for them) have decided that they will take no action at all against pavement parking. You’re actually less likely to get a ticket in Sussex if you park fully on the pavement than if you park on the road! What a daft situation.
Just being on the pavement is an obstruction. By the looks of the photo 2/3 of the bus is on the pavement obstructing 2/3 of the pavement.
As you say, it looks a quiet road so just why does this driver feel the need to park like this and why does he think it’s acceptable?
Another avenue to try if talking to his employers doesn’t resolve the situation would be to take this to the Traffic Commissioners. They have (or did have, things may have changed since I last drove a PCV) the power to take away his PCV licence.
You are right that the Traffic Commissions do have a lot of power and that bus operators are very worried about offending them, but I don’t know what powers they have over parking. Is there anything specific that one could use? The person who sent me the photo may well wish to try the Traffic Commissions if the direct approach to the operator doesn’t work.
I’m not too sure on specifics but I think it’s something to do with driving other than in accordance with the licence. Sorry that’s so vague, I haven’t had anything to do with PCV (or PSV as I still call it) for over 20 years now.