Brighton and Hove City Council has welcomed news that it will be given the power to issue parking tickets to drivers who park on pavements.
The move aims to keep pavements clear and safe for pedestrians, in particular, parents with buggies, wheelchair and mobility scooter users and people who are blind or have poor vision.
Yesterday (Friday 9 January) the council said that new pavement parking powers were great news for Brighton and Hove.
The council said: “Brighton and Hove City Council is welcoming the news that local authorities will be given more powers to tackle dangerous and anti-social pavement parking.
“Yesterday the Department for Transport (DfT) announced they’ll be making it easier for councils to introduce pavement parking restrictions across wider areas.
“It will mean clearer pavements for pedestrians, buggies and pushchairs, wheelchairs and mobility scooters across Brighton and Hove.
“At the moment, pavement parking restrictions are limited to individual streets and require a lengthy legal process.”
Labour councillor Trevor Muten, the council’s cabinet member for transport and city infrastructure, said: “This is very welcome news from the government and will help us tackle a persistent problem we’ve been wanting to address for some time.
“Parking on pavements causes genuine safety and accessibility problems, blocking access for pedestrians and especially for disabled people and those with mobility issues.
“Over time, it also damages pavements which we then must repair.
“These new powers will give a greater ability to restrict and enforce pavement parking across the city, keeping them clear and safe for everyone.
“We’re awaiting further details and guidance from the Department for Transport about how these new powers can be used effectively and proportionately.
“But I look forward to working with officers to help create better, clearer and safer pavements for Brighton and Hove.”
The council added: “Further guidance from the DfT is expected later this year.”
In Edinburgh, the council collects nearly £500,000 a year in fines for pavement parking in addition to about £8 million a year in parking fines – broadly the same level of parking fines as Brighton and Hove.
This is very good news for a variety of pavement users but every coin has two sides. Most of the “inconsiderate and selfish” drivers who park with two wheels on the pavement do so in consideration of other road users who could not get past if all four wheels remained on the road. Many, in doing so, ensure that there is enough room left for buggies, prams and wheelchairs to use the remaining pavement, but I can see jobsworth traffic wardens etc. booking any car that so much as touches the kerb regardless of how much room they have left for pedestrians. I often find that refuse bins left on the pavement cause more of a problem than cars, so I think that a lot of common sense will be needed here. Mind you, as the council is so short of cash this will be another god sent cash cow and discretion and common sense will fly out of the window. If they only targe the real thoughtless pavement parkers then all power to their elbows!
The problem of pavement parking agreed is usually because of a narrow road. But I’d argue the considerate thing to do would be to park somewhere else and not block the pavement or road in the first place.
Equally all money raised has to be spent on transport so it’s more money that can be spent on resurfacing, which is desperately needed, look at the state of elm grove.
So speaks the motorist. I often see vehicles *blocking* the pavements unnecessarily. They won’t get nicked unless more than half the vehicle width is on the footway.
Not true Dick, any mounting of the curb counts typically in other areas that have this restriction in place.
Benjamin, you really must curb your spelling mistakes. The edge of a footpath is a kerb!
Very good, I did indeed use the American form of kerb, curb, instead of kerb.
I personally welcome this news, pavement parking is a poor standard of driving, and it’s often used alongside excuses such as making space on the road, which of course leads to…why did you park where it wasn’t suitable to do so?
It will need to be with consideration to updating some road lines as well, because we could very well have situations where self regulation fails, where there are room for parking on only one side of the road, amongst other things.
People park with their wheels on the pavement so that vehicles can get past on the road. Cars were previously not at huge as many of them are now so now it’s more of an issue. Get rid of the SUVs in the narrow city streets and you then have far less of a problem. It’s all well and good saying park somewhere else but if you’ve ever tried parking in Brighton you’ll quickly realise that it’s often difficult to find any space at all so let’s all congest the roads more by driving around for longer looking for spaces! Is pavement parking really that much of an issue? I don’t think it’s really been a huge problem for the last 60 years or so has it so why is it now? Obviously it more money going to the council in fines but selling it as a huge benefit to pedestrians doesn’t make much sense. Most pavements are wide enough for cars to park on the edge and pedestrians, buggies etc to still get past. I really don’t think it’s an issue…
I think you highlight very clearly why drivers assume this is a non-issue, because the logic of doing so does make sense.
However, it affects those with mobility issues the most significantly and disproportionately. You also allude to it being a silent issue, which would be my next point, as this demographic has historically had fewer opportunities to challenge this issue, because the ability to enforce pavement parking is not straightforward.
However, let’s flip the narrative slightly. If a pedestrian decides to casually walk along the road, sets up chairs/tables, etc, drivers wanting to use the road would equally be annoyed that their driving space is taken up by non-drivers, and rightly so, right?
You say it mostly affects those with mobility issues but where my mum and dad live theres one stretch of pavement big enough for four cars where you have to park on a pavement to be off of the road enoigh and if people like my mum and dad couldn’t park there along with a few others they would have to walk a lot futher they they would be able to do because of the lack of parking and the council want to build another ridiculous block of flats on the road taking away a car park which will displace at least 10 regular cars so residents on that road will literally have nowhere to park and people with mobility issues will keep getting tickets for parking as close as they need to to their homes as they can not walk that far.
Absolutely, it’s why the logic makes sense to people when there are specific examples like that. My challenge there would be to ask, “Does that road make sense? Are we making effective use of the space available? Would a redesign make more space? Have they applied for a disabled bay?”
One could be even more pragmatic and ask if that home is suitable for your parents, if the only way is as you describe for them to park antisocially? Or do they need additional mobility tools? The problem is that tickets only happen so many times before they become a court case. And I think neither of us wants to see older folks being penalised for simply adapting to their limitations.
It’s a good comment, Kat, and highlights why conversations about these things are really important.
each road get considered separately its not a blanket ban
Cannot wait for this to be implemented. No excuses, fine them all. Let’s educate lazy drivers that their convenience does not outstrip the rights of pedestrians. I hope it includes verged as well.
Excellent news. The council have had their hands tied until now. This will make life easier for local disabled residents in Hove
I totally agree that vehicles shouldn’t park on pavements and if they do there should be consequences
But if B&H council put as much effort into sorting out the repairs upkeep and crime of the city as they do about parking and driving fines for revenue Brighton might get back to the city it once was rather than what it’s become
Crime is not dealt with by the Council Max; it’s the responsibility of Katy Bourne, the Con PCC.
Vehicles that stop, wait or park on pavements (footways) should be towed away. No fines required. The inconvenience of getting the vehicles back from the pound should be enough of a deterrent.
When I came to live in Brighton in the early 1980s, there were nearly 16 million cars on the UK’s roads. Now there are 34 million, mostly wider ones. Brighton’s roads have not been made wider and there are not miles more of them. There’s the rub. More, bigger cars occupying more or less the same space. We’re not going to demolish houses and businesses in order to build more and wider roads. So what are the solutions? Encourage people to walk, cycle and use public transport. Make the amenities we want or need closer to where we work or live (the derided 15 minute city). Other answers on a postcard please.
It will be interesting to see if they include vehicles parked on former green verges,I hope they do
In our area, we actually had an enforcement zone set up, and natural barriers to discourage. What we found is that, outside of one persistent driver, who had about a month’s worth of tickets before being taken to court, we saw very little verge and green space parking after that.
Excellent news..all those households who have cars but can’t park legally will be penalised.
Anyone working out of the city will in the end be forced to sell up freeing up housing stock that can’t be afforded by the locals in the short term.
It’s quite depressing that the only issue that brings out all the keyboard warriors is…their precious tin boxes on wheels. Why not try commenting on all the many other social injustices? No, of course you won’t.
Haha, no one has ever accused me of commenting too little, Chris! Quite a few regulars here, too. Still, people have things that they care about more than others; no one has the capacity to fight against everything all the time. Although, to the credit of some people, they certainly try. Anyway, as long as the conversation is productive and respectful, is a focus on one aspect a bad thing?
I live close to Brighton station where both the roads and pavements are narrow. Drivers underestimate the space required by pedestrians. Although I do not use a wheelchair my mobility is poor and I often have to walk in the road because I can’t safely walk through the narrow gap left by cars and vans.
about time. our wardens are only interested in cars parked in parking bays out of time. double yellow lines best place to park. wont get a ticket there lol