Cheshire East Council is considering measures to tackle the issue of pavement parking which has been highlighted in Wilmslow recently with cars regularly blocking the pavement alongside Cliff Road, forcing pedestrians on to the road.
The Department for Transport (DfT) is undertaking a review of current regulations that apply to parking on pavements.
Cheshire East Council will submit evidence to a review the government is undertaking of current regulations that apply to parking on pavements. CEC will highlight the key issues and experiences surrounding pavement parking, while also looking at options for controlling the problem.
However, the council is not looking to introduce a blanket ban across the borough. Instead, it plans to consider targeted measures that support its policy to promote sustainable transport with less car dependency.
Councillor Laura Crane, Cheshire East Council cabinet member for highways and waste, said: "Parking vehicles on pavements may, in some instances, seem the only appropriate choice for households but it can seriously impede pedestrians, partially sighted and blind people and people with mobility issues, including wheelchair users and those in mobility scooters.
"These residents must often put themselves at risk by being forced to move on to the road to get around a vehicle parked on the pavement. While the police have powers to deal with serious cases, they have limited resources and the council has limited powers to tackle the problem.
"We must look at how planning regulations for new housing developments could include measures to reduce pavement parking, including for houses of multiple occupation, which often see more than one vehicle per property.
"Ideally, we wish to see greater reliance on walking, cycling and public transport and less dependency on motor vehicles. A large number of our streets were built with little or no off-street parking space and vehicles are often parked on pavements to ensure a free-flow of traffic on the roadway. Therefore, there is no easy solution."
Councillor Mick Warren, Cheshire East Council cabinet member for communities, said: "Pavement parking can have a seriously detrimental effect on communities. Parents with prams and small children, people with disabilities, including blind and partially sighted people, are all inconvenienced and put at risk by pavement parking.
"But there has to be a balance, with any policy we introduce to ensure that any local restriction on pavement parking does not merely shift the problem around the corner."
Following the completion of the government's review, the council will develop its draft proposals, which would be consulted upon.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
In a nutshell:
1. Pavement parking is a nuisance and a problem for the users of pavements for whom they were created and built in the first place - the pedestrians - to keep them safe from road vehicles. [Now that should get the populace to vote for us in the local council elections if they believe we are on their side].
2. Home owners with cars and nowhere to leave them outside their property would understandably want to leave them on the pavement and not block the road for other motorists. [Now that should get the homeowners to vote for us in the local council elections].
3. The police haven't the time or resources to be bothered with stuff like this. {Parking on pavements won't then put the voters against us in the local council elections because they will understand that it isn't our fault but that of the police who can't be bothered].
4. Getting past a vehicle parked on the pavement can be a dangerous affair - especially if you are partially sighted, blind, a person with mobility issues, including wheelchair users, those in mobility scooters and not forgetting those pushing prams with babies inside or children on their way to/from school on a cold, wet, windy day. The Highway Code does however explain how to cross the road so anyone who gets knocked down obviously hasn't followed the official Department for Transport advice about going into the road which can be very dangerous. We could get one of those statisticians who did the figures that nobody understood for Covid-19 to come up with an acceptable number of pedestrians killed or injured per every 100,000 cars parked on the pavement and then it won't seem so bad. [This should pass the buck in case of an accident firmly onto the DfT then voters won't think it has anything to do with us come the local council elections, so they will still vote for us].
5. The planners could do something if they ever have a mind to think about it and perhaps stipulate bigger pavements outside homes with no driveways so the owners can park as many cars on them as they wish. {So come local council election time the voters will still vote for us because we've passed the responsibility on to the planners who don't stand for election and will always get a good salary courtesy of the council tax payers no matter what happens].
6. Anyway we can blame the Victorians for building so many houses with nowhere to park a car in times before the car was invented. [This will then pass the buck so far back in history that we will be home and dry in any local council election and can look forward to further practicing the art of Muppetry by expertly dithering for many more years to come. How fortunate we are representing such gullible people who will loyally vote us in regardless come the next local council elections].