YEP Letters: April 12

Drivers could soon be fined for parking on pavements under plans being considered by the Department for Transport (DfT). Currently London is the only part of the UK where motorists are banned from parking on pavements and a £70 fine is handed out to those breaking the law. Now the DfT is considering plans to bring England and Wales into line with the capital with similar proposals being considering in Scotland. Ministers and local authorities want to see the practice - which causes obstructions for wheelchairs users and visually impaired pedestrians and parents with pushchairs brought to an end with proposals expected to be finalised later this year. We asked YEP readers for their views and here’s what some of them said on social media..

Nick Hanson

They’re all parked illegally, supposed to park in direction of traffic flow so reflectors ‘work’ if it’s dark. People buy cars and think they’ve a right to park/dump the car where they like. Bring on the fines, I say. You cannot buy a car in Japan unless you can prove you have a parking space.

Si Wright

I don’t think any driver wants to park on a pavement but the infrastructure hasn’t evolved with the amount of cars on the road. I recall seeing posts by West Yorkshire Police regarding people allowing space for emergency service vehicles and utility services on the roads, this will only make it worse. It’s a Catch-22.

Lee Smith

On most streets if on one side of the road cars are parked off the kerb you wouldn’t get a bus down nor an ambulance, and if both sides parked off the kerb both would be blocked, so unless you’re going to rebuild England’s roads and move houses further apart this is rubbish.

Andy Ogley

Parking partially on the pavement is often a considerate thing to do in many cases where space is tight. How do you fit the fire engines through if the road is blocked?

John Blair

You drive on until you find a safe place to park so you’re not causing an obstruction on the road or pavement.

Genevieve Spark

Oh yeah let’s block the road instead then? And for those saying “it isn’t a parking space” or “park somewhere else” – because there are parents with prams etc too (I get that because I am a parent too).

But what if the car parked part way on the path is because it is a mother or father parking outside their own home if they don’t have a driveway so they don’t have to park streets away to have to get to their own home with their children? And that would then change things for their car insurance too as it wouldn’t even be kept at the same postcode (some insurers will not accept this). Luckily we don’t have to park on the pavement but if we have visitors, they do.

Sally Mills

If everyone started parking on the road it would block emergency services, buses etc from getting past. That’s the whole reason I do have to sometimes edge onto the pavement.

I’m thinking about the narrow roads that already are havoc for cars to try and squeeze through and that’s even when people park on the pavement. It’s just another way of getting more money out of us never mind the £300 a year in road tax, almost £2,000 in insurance every year plus 
MOT petrol everything else I have to pay to have my own car... so a £70 fine for not obstructing buses and emergency services.

People will soon change their mind on this when it’s taking emergency services twice as long to get to people.

Daniel Bates

Emergency services will be able to get through if people park considerately.

Lisa Mitchell

If you live on a long road which consists of terraced houses, which were built before many households could afford one car, let alone two, then are those home owners to be fined every single night their car has to be parked on the pavement?

Removing that facility would deem most roads unusable because it would make them too narrow to drive down. All well and good bringing in new rules to force drivers to do this but in the same move they will penalise some who have no other option other than to partially block a pavement just so they can park at home. Or they block a road up and be fined anyway for blocking the road. Fix the potholes first!

Jo Mawn

It’s those causing someone to have to walk on a road to get around it or someone with a toddler, small child or pram (or both) that needs to be fined and given points. If a road is too narrow to park on don’t park? If it’s too narrow to drive on don’t drive on it. A path is for pedestrians not cars.

Kieron O’hara

Great. Really gets to be me when my partner and baby are forced to walk on a busy main road due to inconsiderate parked cars. Bigger fine and enforcement officers, please.

Ritchie Towers

If the road is narrow to park on then you can’t park there, simple. You will get your car towed and a fine. As long as pedestrians plus wheelchair users etc can get through without having to go into the roads it should be okay. It’s people who block the whole pavement that need dealing with.

Andrea Glover

Spare a thought for those with a visual impairment who may walk into cars parked on pavements or risk life and limb straying into oncoming vehicles.

Cliff Owen

Drivers are too idle to park anywhere other than the shortest distance from where they are going. No consideration for anyone else. This law is long overdue.

Keith Roberts

Bring it on and also enforce illegal parking on double yellows. There is always somewhere to park legally if people are prepared to use their feet a little.

Claire Magee

The street where we live is narrow. If no one parked partially on the pavement no one would get up it including binmen, emergency services etc .