parking in Portsmouth

[bazzaf]

A large number of people are now changing their front gardens into parking areas and the council are providing dropped kerbs to facilitate this.
What are the laws re parking across these dropped kerbs ? I am led to believe that it is an offence to park across them if there is already a vehicle in the parking area thus preventing this car from getting out. However is it an offence to park if there is no vehicle in the parking area?

[maggie01]

I would have thought it worked both ways. If you park across someones drop kerb, then you are preventing them from parking in the said space. You say the council are providing dropped kerbs. We live nr Portsmouth and we have a garage and dropped kerb but wanted to extend the drop kerb, and it was going to cost us �500. If they are also paying this sort of cost, surely they are entitled to park their car on their property.

[De-Niro]

We have a dropped kerb and like a painted line like a stretched H on the road. I beleive this is a no parking area with this line.

I think you can park there if theres no vehicle as there is no marking to tell you otherwise. However i do believe that if they ask you to move your vehicle so they can access this, you should.

[almcd007]

We had this problem - once the kerb's dropped its an official "access to property" type argument and you cannot park there and obstruct an access - just because it didn't used to be makes no odds once the kerbs dropped. If you cannot get the attention of the driver you can report it to the police and have the car removed. Although it's not recomended, it the offender does not heed any warnings , you are legally entitled to move the car yourself to gain access.

[Grunty]

Strictly, it is an obstruction if you park on a road. Nowadays, action will only be taken if it can be proved that someone was prevented from making a legitimate journey, and this would include reaching their property. The dropped kerb has no legal significance, but it could be used to indicate that you should have noticed that access would be required to the property.
I would not recommend moving the car as recommended above. I have known people to be prosecuted for taking a motor vehicle, and using it without insurance (even though the vehicle was only being pushed). I don't think the law has changed since then.

[Toureman]

This is for Waltham but I should think it is the same for most places, ask your local council what regulations they have.............

http://www.lbwf.gov.uk/index/transport/parking -roads/parking-home/crossover.htm

[almcd007]

If it happened to me - I'd move the car if I had to get out of my driveway. It does have a relevance about the dropped kerb because some people change their gardens to driveways, without dropping the kerb, but have no legal right of way accross the path to get to their property. In Ealing my sister in law had to apply to the council to change their garden to a driveway, drop the kerb and remove the parking bay from the front of their house. If the council asess it as they do - they are granting that right of way and therefore a dropped kerb is a good indication that access should not be hindered. As for people to be charged with "taking a vehicle" just by pushing it out of the way - I've never heard of it and I've worked in a solicitors for 6 years and married to a Police Civilian. If just cause can be shown that the vehicle was causing an obstruction - that would be enough for me !