Who's to blame for inconsiderate pavement parking?
Does responsibility lie with the council or motorists?
WHETHER it’s outside your home, your children’s school or business, pavement parking is something we’ve all come across and an issue that frustrates people more than most.
But how can the problem be solved?
Should people park more responsibly or should the council take action against those who don’t?
That was the question debated by West Berkshire Council at a meeting recently.
Council leader Lynne Doherty (Con, Speen) said the responsibility lay with drivers and not the local authority – and claimed that the best way to resolve the issue was through awareness rather than enforcement.
She added that the council would need to have “hundreds of enforcement officers to pick up every time someone was parked inconsiderately”.
However, the Liberal Democrat opposition disagreed.
The issue was debated after the council’s executive member for highways and transport, Richard Somner (Con, Tilehurst South and Holybrook) put forward a motion calling on parish councils to champion an awareness campaign for considerate parking in their parishes.
But the council’s opposition leader Lee Dillon (Lib Dem, Thatcham North East) said: “I’m afraid, councillor Somner, your motion doesn’t address the problem at all.
“In fact, it seems to seek to push the responsibility on to the drivers, on to the parish councils and on to businesses.
“It doesn’t talk to us about making sure that the police are actually undertaking enforcement when they can.
He concluded: “The real problem we’ve got is, if we are not going to get our traffic enforcement officers out in the worst areas, if we are not going to use the powers we have as a local authority, then why should drivers, parish councils, residents and businesses take note of what you are calling for today?”
His Lib Dem colleague, Alan Macro (Theale), said the council could look at introducing traffic regulation orders to make pavement parking illegal where it is a particular problem.
He added: “You could ask the council’s civil enforcement officers to enforce against illegal parking on verges where there are no double yellow lines.”
“To try and put the whole responsibility down on to town and parish councils which do not have highways responsibilities and traffic management responsibilities, that is completely ludicrous.
“It has to be this council that does it.”
But Mrs Doherty said: “Ultimately the responsibility for this sits with drivers. It doesn’t sit with the local authority.
“I am sure – and I have faith in the residents of West Berkshire – that the majority don’t actually stop and think.
“We have the opportunity go out to our residents and to say ‘do you realise the impact of your actions?’
“Today I saw a van that was half parked on a pavement and a mother walking towards it with a pushchair.
“I am sure the van driver thought they were trying to be considerate to other drivers, which they weren’t, but they didn’t stop to think about their actions.
“For me, I don’t want to continually have to rely on enforcement. I want encourage our residents to actually stop and think about their actions.”
Concluding, Mrs Doherty said the motion would raise awareness rather than “continually rely on enforcement action to do so”.
Lib Dem deputy leader Jeff Brooks (Thatcham West) said: “Since I became a councillor in 1992, how many complaints have I had from residents about cars parking on the roads?
“What is missing here is real leadership from this council. You are just outsourcing it again.
“What resources do they have to do it?
“We have the resources here.
“It is not just good enough to say ‘hello parishes will you make all the drivers in your parish aware not to park on the pavements’.”
The council’s executive member for public health and wellbeing, Rick Jones (Con, Tilehurst & Purley), said: “The true fact is that the problem of parking on pavements is so widespread, every village has it.
“There is no way we can afford or create or have enough people to do enforcement.
“Enforcement has its role, but it is not going to fix the problem.
“There’s no way that we can afford do all the enforcement.”
Concluding, Mr Somner said: “This isn’t about changing the entire ethos away from enforcement and into responsibility for somebody else.
“This isn’t Teflon coating, not about shifting responsibility. This is about contributing in a more holistic way.”
The ruling Conservatives all voted in favour of the motion, but the Lib Dems abstained.
The Green Party supported the motion, but said it didn’t go far enough to address the problem.
