Parking on a pavement in such a way that it’s blocks the use of the pavement forces pavement users to walk on the road which is inherently dangerous in itself. Furthermore there are those who require continuous use of the pavement such as wheelchair users, those with visual impairments, people with small children and buggies etc who are put even further at risk by being forced to walk in the road and who would not be able to react quickly if a car was approaching. Ultimately the pavement is for use by pedestrians and not cars and blocking its total use for pedestrians should be seen as a parking offence and fined accordingly.
This ePetition ran from 05/08/2022 to 16/09/2022 and has now finished.
235 people signed this ePetition.
Parking on the footway and verge is not in itself a civil offence, which means that Civil Enforcement Officers are unable to carry out enforcement action (i.e. issue a Penalty Charge Notice) where a formal parking restriction is not in place.
A private members bill to ban pavement parking (i.e. make it a Civil Offence) was brought to parliament in 2015, but it was subsequently withdrawn.
http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2015-16/pavementparkingprotectionofvulnerablepedestrians.html
The Government subsequently commissioned a Transport Committee to carry out a further investigation into footway parking to identify a national solution. The latest information on this is available via the link below;
The Transport Committee published its report on Monday 9th September 2019 which can be read via the link below.
In summary, there is a recommendation to introduce national legislation to make footway parking a civil offence, but this would need to go through Parliament.
Since that time, the Secretary of State for Transport has announced that a further consultation will take place on prospective Legislation for footway parking. Southampton City Council responded to the public consultation in November 2020. No further announcements have been made by government since the consultation closed.
Until such time that new legislation comes forward, the Council can only enforce footway or verge parking if there are parking restrictions (e.g. double yellow lines, single yellow lines etc.) on the adjacent carriageway as these then apply to the footway & verge as well. Consideration still needs to be given to potential loading/unloading activities which are permitted on single/double yellow lines (an observation period is carried out to establish if this is the case).
Obstruction of the footway where a restriction is not in place
constitutes obstruction of the highway and can only be enforced by
the Police. Obstruction of the Highway can be reported via 101, but
realistically the Police would not have the resources to tackle the
issue on an ongoing basis at any given location