Pavement Parking, Danger or Convenience?

Around 80% of Fleetwood is plagued with pavement parking of some description. I decided to gather some evidence and the Police response to this.

Parking on the pavement can cause inconvenience to pedestrians. It can create hazards for visually impaired, disabled and elderly people or those with prams or pushchairs. It may also cause damage to the kerb, the pavement, or the services underneath. Repairing such damage can be costly and local authorities may face claims for compensation for injuries received resulting from damaged or defective pavements.

In some areas pavement parking is prohibited by a local Act of Parliament, and it may be prohibited elsewhere in particular streets or parts of streets by traffic regulation orders. But enforcement may be a problem unless the local authority is able to take on the responsibility through the arrangement being developed under the Road Traffic Act 1991.

Having had complaints from residents were pavement parking was an issue even though the roads in question were wide enough to sustain normal legal parking, I wrote to the police for their response.

The reply from Superintendent Launder (Operation's Manager) was that she agreed that after tasking officers in this respect there was agreement that a large number of vehicles were parked on the pavement with some facing the wrong way.

She went on to say that "they were all in well lit areas not causing any danger and there were no locally reported road traffic accidents caused by this".

Pavement parking is not an offence in itself however if the vehicle is considered to be an obstruction prosecution may follow.

I welcome your comments on this prior to my reply and have inserted a poll for voting purposes. I value your input on these matters and urge you to report any incidents of obstruction directly to the Police whilst giving me the details.