MPS urged to back bill against pavement parking

Devon County Council is urging the Transport Secretary and Devon MPs to back a bill to help end the blight of parking on pavements.

The Pavement Parking (Protection of Vulnerable Pedestrians) Bill is scheduled for its second reading in the House of Commons on Friday 4 December.

Councillor Stuart Hughes, Devon County Council Cabinet Member for Highway Management, has written to Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin MP, and Devon’s local MPs, appealing for them to support the bill.

Councillor Hughes said: “This issue needs dealing with because bad practices adopted by motorists have become widespread throughout our communities, both large and small, rural and urban. Pavement parking remains a dilemma for local authorities, as there are no specific powers for our Civil Parking Enforcement Officers to enforce 'obstruction' of highways, or, footways. It’s vital that this bill is supported to permit local authorities to address inconsiderate and dangerous behaviour on our roads without undue cost to the public purse.”

Over the last couple of months in Devon, the County Council received 41 complaints of parking on pavements in September, and 27 in October.

In his letter, Councillor Hughes states: “Whilst powers have been granted to introduce Traffic Regulation Orders throughout our area of responsibility, we believe there is a real need for further legislation in order to realise consistency throughout England, and remove the need for Orders and associated traffic signing.

“The introduction of specific Orders by this authority to combat the practice site by site is cost prohibitive, in particular the provision of signing to inform motorists of the affected area is costly, and potentially intrusive on the street scape.”

Councillor Hughes has also written to North Dorset MP Simon Hoare, who is the sponsor of the Private Members’ Bill, expressing the County Council’s backing for the bill.