Powers to ban pavement parking should be extended across England to make streets safer, a new study says.
The Local Government Association (LGA) says councils do not have the powers they need to tackle the “scourge” of pavement parking.
Wheelchair users, older people and those with pushchairs are put at risk by being forced to use the road, according to the report.
The government says it has consulted with councils on how to take action.
London is currently the only area in England where pavement parking is banned, and the report urges the government to extend the ban to the rest of the country.
According to the LGA, “inconsiderate parking presents a real hazard and a potential danger to life”.
A Department for Transport (DfT) consultation on giving councils in the rest of the country the power to prohibit pavement parking ended in November 2020, but no announcement has been made.
It’s about time that the DfT pulled its finger out …
I think you be just as likely to get a ban on cars in the UK, Too many streets would be impassable if cars parked solely on the road.
Fortunately old streets here were made wide enough for a bullock train to turn round. It gives enough room for angle parking on both sides plus two wide(ish) lanes of traffic.
According to a Wollongong Council survey the average household in new suburbs has between 3 and 5 cars
It grieves me Bruce, but I have to agree, if you parked solely on the road, Ambulances and Fire Engines would not get through, who comes first, in an emergency, also, if you live in the middle of nowhere , where there are no Pavement users, and you park half on, half off, to facilitate the flow of traffic, would yo get a ticket?
When I visited the UK last I went to visit my grandmother’s old house in Cheltenham. I remember it as a wide street of Victorian semi detached, my grandfather was one of only two people with cars in the street (the other was a vicar of the church at the end of the street).
When I returned for my visit there were cars completely lining both sides of the street and only room for one car at a time down the middle, to me it appeared to have shrunk.
All the old photos of my old City show cars fully on the road, but folks did not need Ambulances back then, they just passed away in their front rooms!!
Unfortunately, it is just the same here. I have black and white photos of my road from the early seventies in which there is about one car parked. Now, from about 6.30am on a weekday they all start arriving and two hours later both sides of the road are lined with cars. The railway station is about ten minutes walk away but the car park is quite expensive.
City of Edinburgh Council is the first in Scotland to implement new powers given to it by the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019, which came into effect last month.
When I visited the Uk in 1977 one thing that struck me was footpath parking because of course so many people don’t have off street parking let alone a front and back yard like we have out here. Even here though parking in town has become a challenge as in the last 15 years car ownership has sky rocketed to the point where having your own car is like having a mobile phone. Cars are so cheap now. In the 1960’s half the families did not own even one car now 2 and even 3 cars per house hold is common. New Zealand has the highest car ownership numbers in the world aside from a few luxury islands. 90% of adults go no where except in a car. This despite cheap and regular public transport. The only communication with neighbours now is the finger raise on the steering wheel. A real fussy snobby generation has arrived.
I viewed a shot of my old uk home where my ma and pa kept a beautiful front garden with clipped lawn flower beds and two hedges - all gone - now flagstones and 3 cars?? - are we progressing? - I must have been brought up in heaven?
We are in a London borough here so pavement parking is already illegal. Most of the roads have stretches of single or double yellow lines. It is perfectly possible to find spaces to leave a car for free but most car parks are pay zones. Some large supermarkets are free for up to an hour and forty five minutes as long as you use the store. There are also areas of resident only parking between certain hours in the small town centre. It has certainly become a bit like a mine field avoiding getting caught out somewhere!
