The possibility that councils could be given new powers to stop people parking on the pavement has been welcomed in Brighton and Hove.
The Department for Transport is considering extending a ban on pavement parking in London across England, which would lead to £70 fines for anyone caught flouting it.
Councils could apply to allow pavement parking in specific locations, but the presumption would be that it was outlawed.
One Brighton resident who regularly has problems taking her daughter to Carden Primary School because of cars blocking the pavements along Denton Drive, said more needed to be done to tackle selfish drivers.
Lou Regan said: “I have had stand up arguments with idiot drivers. When my daughter was in year 2 we were walking down Denton Drive to school and a car parked on the pavement reversed and the the wing mirror hit her.
“Lucky I had pulled her towards me. The driver, who was shouting at me when I banged the car roof, said he didn’t see her and I should be more careful!
“The local parents that drive their kids to school, some that live in Denton Drive do it, should stop.”
Councillor Gill Mitchell, chair of the city’s environment and transport committee, said: “We would welcome additional powers to tackle verge and pavement parking through parking enforcement.
“Pavement parking has been a long running issue in Brighton and Hove, which we have been unable to resolve with the powers currently available to us.
“Communities across the city are concerned about this, particularly some of our blind and partially sighted residents, and we would welcome the opportunity to contribute to finding the right solution.
“In response to petitions from residents the city council has introduced a small number of pavement and verge parking bans covering short sections of road.
“The cost of implementing these bans, however, means that this method of preventing pavement/verge parking is far too expensive to be considered for tackling the problem in wider areas of the city.
“Pavement parking hotspots also change daily when a citywide solution is not available.
“Residents in the city are perplexed that the city’s enforcement officers do not have the powers to enforce pavement parking unless vehicles are also parked adjacent to double yellow lines.
“We have contacted the minister to highlight the issues we have here in Brighton and Hove and to signal the council’s support for measures that the government could bring forward that would strengthen the law and help us take action locally.”
I welcome the ban on payment parking ,as I use a wheel chair and a mobility scooter when outside. I find it difficult in the area that I live as pavement parking is the norm. This means I have to use the road when I am out side. Banning pavement parking In This area of Brighton and Hove ,Mile Oak , would then create another problem , if vehicles park on the road there is not enough room for large vehicles to pass, making rubbish collection,emergency vehicles and deliveries impossible. Also with the narrowness of the road people wouldn’t be able to manoeuvre their vehicles out of their driveway or off road parking areas. The council would then have to make one side of the road parking free to resolve this, which I think would raise objections.
I used to live in a road that regularly would see residents park on one pavement or the other. The problems is that modern cars are much wider than the older cars of yesteryear and the streets of old Britain were not designed for the wider cars of today also most families have at least 1 car if not 2 cars. The problem in our road was that there were to many cars not enough space to park sensibly for i am sure people would if they could.
A solution would be to remove the pavement on one side of the road as there is still the other side that pedestrians could walk down or reduce the pavement width but i suspect i will be scorned for that thought.
I don’t understand this: it’s already against the law to drive a motor vehicle on the footway or to obstruct the footway. How is parking on the pavement legal?
Lets see if they enforce it as rigorously as the litter police , Denton Drive has seen many a near miss recently and despite the efforts of the school residents and local councilor Lee Wares it has taken the comments on a Facebook community page HOLLINGBURY MATTERS and the wonderful Jo Wadsworth to get the problem highlighted , many thanks
So Mark I’m guessing you are not familiar with the reasons for verges to cope with drainage and if it was the other side of the road , straight into the road from the steps to your house ?
wonder if Sarah Rohman will up her radar presence ? Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2016 16:01:36 +0000
Hi Martin,
thank you for your email, unfortunately this is a common issue accross Brighton and Hove especially during peak school times.
Although i am more than happy to pay passing attention to these areas i can not always guarantee to be there at these times. Rest assured that If i or my colleagues are ever in the area we will always speak to owners of parked vehicles and ask them to move on and issue stern words of advice, even issue tickets if needed.
In this instance however i can offer you details of the parking office who specifically deal with this type of incident. You can contact them on 0345 6035469 and you will need to select option 2. You will need the vehicle description, registration, location and the offence such as yellow lines, obstruction etc. This service is an answer phone message but messages are checked every 15 minutes, and they will attend the location within an hour and deal with any offences.
I hope that this has helped and answered your query.
Denton Drive/Ladies Mile Road are on my radar thank you for your information.
Regards
Sarah Rohman
Police Community Support Officer 20265
I completely agree with Mark Jones. We regularly have to partially park on the opposite pavement. Coming home from work and not being able to park on my own road would be extremely frustrating. Where I live there are no houses on the other side so removing that pavement would solve many issues.
This may cause the council staff that work at the housing office as some of them park daily on the pavement adjacent to the NCP carpark at the back of North Street. I asked one about parking there before and was told it was ok as they worked for the council. Sounds like one rule for us and another for them
Lou regans child doesn’t even go to Carden school as her child is in secondary school parking is a nightmare at school time partly caused buy only having parking on one side off the road and the teachers park on it as they are not allowed to use school car park??? And the residents are falsed to park on pavement as there is so many parents picking up their children but on the opposite side off the road the pavement is always clear . There are always people who complain about things that don’t even concern them but this problem occurs at every school for no longer than 30 mins get over it as I bet most off drive to get your kids or has a friend that does
:Love false parking – does that mean it doesn’t really happen