Pavement parking

[neddyw]

I know there have been lots of questions on here regarding parking on pavements. A pleb who lives round the corner from us (150-200yrds away) parks his huge trany van, trailer, truck and daughters car in the space between our drive and the junction with the main road blocking the pavement. We cant see cars turning into the road when we are reversing off the drive and there have been loads of near misses at the junction because cars going up the road have to drive on the wrong side and cars wanting to turn into the road cant see because of the van. There are 20 houses on the road and almost all have young children who attend the nursery and school nearby and who have to walk in the road because of the blocked pavement. There are no yellow lines.
Do we report this to the police or the council? Most of the residents have spoken to this guy but his arguement is that he has no where else to park his vehicles.

[brenda]

Police first , council next . Good luck

[Buenchico]

In many areas of the country, routine parking regulation has been de-criminalised (under the Traffic Management Act 2004) and is now dealt with by council staff, rather than the police or traffic wardens. In other areas the old system still applies. (For example, here in Suffolk, Ipswich Borough Council have opted to take over parking matters, so it's council staff who carry out patrols and who issue 'tickets'. Just up the road, in Stowmarket, the old system applies and it's PCSOs - with 'Traffic' flashes on their shoulders - who hand out 'tickets').

So if you still see traffic wardens (or 'traffic' PCSOs) in your area, it's the police who you need to contact. If you see council staff carrying out patrols then, unsurprisingly, it's the council who you should turn to.

However, even where routine parking matters are now under council control, some types of bad parking can still be dealt with by the police. It's an offence under Regulation 103 of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 to "cause or permit a vehicle to stand on a road so as to cause an unnecessary obstruction". It would seem likely that the truck driver is in breach of that Regulation. So (even if the council look after parking matters in your are) it might still be worth speaking to your local community constable, who will probably 'have a word with' the driver.

Chris

[neddyw]

Many thanks, havent seen hide nor hair of traffic warden, PCSO or council staff. Will do some ringing round on monday.

[atalanta]

You used to be able to buy some extra-sticky labels which would say something like " Park here again and I'll put another label on your windscreen - again." It takes half an hour to scrape the label off. I shouldn't be surprised to discover that it is a crime to stick such a thing on a windscreen in the middle of the driver's line of sight. But then, I don't suppose anyone ever stuck a label on a windscreen while a policeman was watching, did they ? Or while a camera was covering the street ?