Parking Rights

[taylormarsh]

I live in a row of 7 terraces in a small market town in Norfolk, the houses sit directly on the pavement which is very wide and has a cobbled area on which cars have always parked in the past and there is still plenty of room for a double buggy/wheel chair to pass when cars are parked. There are double yellow lines on the road which obviously indicate a no parking area; however people have parked on the pavement for as long as residents can remember which is more than 10 years without a problem and property has been sold with new buyers believing that parking was accepted on the pavement. In the past some of the residents had obtained a letter from the chief of police for the area giving them permission to park, however as these letters have not been needed for more than 10 years we are unable to find a copy of one to prove this, anyway about a month ago early one Saturday morning all the cars had yellow warning cards put on them warning that there was 'no waiting 24hrs' then a couple of days later parking tickets were issued. Apart from the fact that there isn't any other reasonable parking in the area we are understandably quite upset about this. We have tried to speak to the local town council, the county council and the local police, but without any success, the police incidentally say it was a request of the local town council to start issuing parking tickets and the town council insist it was as initiative made by the police.

We would like some advice as to whether there is a way of appealing to this new regime especially as parking has been permitted in the past for so long and we are very concerned on the affect this will have on our property prices in the future.

Thank You
Fran

[buildersmate]

This is a really good question and one I hope we have some good input on. For sure it does seem to be a grey area with different councils doing different things. Here are two examples.
http://www.southwark.gov.uk/YourServices/trans port/parking/WhereToPark/
http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/GenerateContent?C ONTENT_ITEM_ID=26181&CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE=0&MENU_ ID=12077
So Southwark says you can never do it, Birmingham says you may get ticketed for obstruction or for parking dangerously.
Dealing with each of these in turn, parking in a dangerous position is always going to be a judgemental thing - the position of the part of the vehicle that sits on the carriageway, in relationship to the rest of the carriageway and turnings and road widths.
Parking with part of the vehicle on the footpath is the obstruction bit. There is some legal precedent that says that a footpath should be at least 3 feet (it may be one metre) wide. So provided there is 3 feet of width, maybe there should be no problem?
Any other offers / inputs?

[hc4361]

Yellow lines operate from the middle of the highway to the far side of the pavement, so the council is in the right.
Further, it is an offence to drive on the footpath, which you must be doing to park on it.
If the pavement is wide enough, petition the council to provide parking bays.

[Androcles]

There has to be a way to find an answer to this, by consultation and negotiation. I would start of by identifying some key individuals, which would be your local councillors at whatever structure you have (e.g. Parish, District, Unitary Authority, and or County) and with your concerned neighbours invite them to a meeting. Your local Clerk to the Council or equivalent should be able to help with that. Invite if you can the neighbourhood Policing Inspector and ask them the question "What has happened to make the situation change, and is there any way that there can be legal parking created.

I have a personal hot issue about people parking on pavements and affecting baby buggies and wheelchairs, but if the pavement is as wide as you say, then it should be possible to put resident only parking bays.

My other comment would be to be persistent. Attend every council meeting and keep asking questions - get the local press involved. Most local councillors do not want to see anything other than good publicity, so there is always an incentive to reach a compromise, if possible.

[Nosha123]

Can you get any local MP's on board to fight your issues with the Council? There is an area in near us where there is marked boxes on a very wide pavement specifically for cars to park in.. so clearly to get to the boxes the driver must drive on the pavement! The pavement is HUGE.. and there is no parking on the main road as its a busy thoroughfare.

You ned to argue the case that you have all been parking there for years with no issues or tickets... and you REALLY need to see if one of you can find the letter written 10 years ago!!!! That would seriously help your cases!
Could you contact the writer of the letter to get their help? If they recall writing the letters then that surely would suffice if you dont have a hard copy!

[Nosha123]

and drive around your Borough and make a note of any other properties that for some reason are allowed to park on pavements.. to back your case. needs to be in the same council district though as otherwise they would just argue that they abide by different rules to the next COuncil

[taylormarsh]

Thank you all for your input, just to confirm back the cars don't obstruct anything and there is at least a metre if not more in some places of path available for pedestrians. I think we will try tackling the local town council for a meeting first and invite the local police, then if that fails try our local MP and then press. I'll let you know how it goes - will probably take forever though!

Isn't there a law that if something has been done for so many years without objection then it becomes legal? Probably doesn't include parking on pavements next to double yellow lines though!