Parking on pavements MEGATHREAD

[woodview 10]

15 minutes ago, Resident said:

Forgive the petulant question but just how wide are you if you can't walk down a pavement whilst there's a wheelie bin on it? 

 

There are instances where parking partially on the pavement is unavoidable. 

 

I used to live on a road near a hospital, ambulances used the road regularly. There was no off-street parking available and if both sides parked fully on the road it was impassable. 

However the pavements on both sides were about 18ft wide so it didn't cause an issue for cars to be almost fully on the pavement.. Residents had asked for parking bays to be made and at the same time make it permit only by sacrificing some of that width but council said no. 

 

A possible solution is to start handing out points with the fines and have a long term enforcement policy, maybe using those camera cars they have. 

 

When the morons are getting banned for 6 months for poor parking it might start sinking in. 

They mean you can't walk down the pavement when their are cars pulled on it AND the bins.

That happened on our street. We put the bin out night before, neighbour pulls on the kerb, which with the bin effectively blocks the footpath. Overnight someone shoves the bin out of the way, onto our path, bin men don't collect it.

In many cases it's unavoidable, and in other cases there is lazines sinvolved.

[lil-minx92 10]

The people that moan about parking problems on their road would be the first to object to the road being double yellow lined. What they really mean is 'I want to park outside my house but sometimes I cant coz somebody else got there first'.

Your house was cheaper because it didn't come with parking so dont moan that you cant park!

[bassett one 447]

i brought up this subject on many occasions ,with the same SCC answer,i told them when we had all the equipment at our disposal we could fashion out our roads as we resurfaced them,there was never a better time,to put in parking spaces ,instead of folk parking on grass verges as the roads in my area are narrow,also theres loads of grass land could of been used and this would solve the problem of pavement parking,all i ever got was amey only had enough money to do what the SCC said could be done,what a wasted oppertunity as all the equipment was there to do the job,but alas thats SCC,blame the goverment for everthing.

[boldforester 10]

Just now, Resident said:

Forgive the petulant question but just how wide are you if you can't walk down a pavement whilst there's a wheelie bin on it? 

 

There are instances where parking partially on the pavement is unavoidable. 

 

I used to live on a road near a hospital, ambulances used the road regularly. There was no off-street parking available and if both sides parked fully on the road it was impassable. 

However the pavements on both sides were about 18ft wide so it didn't cause an issue for cars to be almost fully on the pavement.. Residents had asked for parking bays to be made and at the same time make it permit only by sacrificing some of that width but council said no. 

 

A possible solution is to start handing out points with the fines and have a long term enforcement policy, maybe using those camera cars they have. 

 

When the morons are getting banned for 6 months for poor parking it might start sinking in. 

It wasn't a petulant question, it was just a stupid one, as subsequent posts have clarified …...

[Phili Buster 10]

19 minutes ago, bassett one said:

i brought up this subject on many occasions ,with the same SCC answer,i told them when we had all the equipment at our disposal we could fashion out our roads as we resurfaced them,there was never a better time,to put in parking spaces ,instead of folk parking on grass verges as the roads in my area are narrow,also theres loads of grass land could of been used and this would solve the problem of pavement parking,all i ever got was amey only had enough money to do what the SCC said could be done,what a wasted oppertunity as all the equipment was there to do the job,but alas thats SCC,blame the goverment for everthing.

Entirely agree.

 

I have highlighted your point about money because near here parts of the footpaths were patched up on the Friday and then the same footpaths were dug up on the following Monday. If that is not a waste of money, I don't know what is.

[Planner1 428]

3 hours ago, MunXy said:

Call me scrooge or any other name but am i the ONLY person sick of inconsiderate parking outside their own homes?

i live in pitsmoor, close to where the new school is being built, across from the old Pyebank school, and the roads around are choked from 8am till around 4pm monday to friday, outside my house the entire side of the  quite narrow road is covered in pavement parkers, to add to the chaos and difficulty with resident parking, one end of Fox street is closed for unspecified road works but nottingham street has lights, on top of the terrible parking we also have HUGE lorries spreading mud and other crap all over the roads causing residents cars to need cleaning almost daily.

when is sheffield council going to crack down on these inconsiderate people parking where they please without a thought for the peoples properties they are making life difficult for, there are quite a few disabled and elderly on my street which compounds the problem.

though not unique, pitsmoor and burngreave have a massive amount of parked vehicles  on yellow lines, bus stops, blocking pavements and a whole host of other parking indescretions .

the council really needs to rethink its policy of ignoring parking and other problems in areas like pitsmoor for fear of upsetting certain parts of the community therein.

Pavement parking is not something the Council can currently enforce. (Unless the vehicle is parked on a double or single yellow line ie something they can enforce)

 

The Police are the only ones who can enforce against people parking on the footway, where they cause an obstruction. The Police normally apply the double buggy test, ie they will only enforce if a double buggy couldn't get past on the footway. Report obstruction to the Police via the 101 non-emergency phone line. I have known them enforce against it.

 

There was talk of legislation being passed in Parliament to restrict pavement parking and a private members bill was introduced, but was subsequently withdrawn, with the promise that the Government would look at it further. I haven't seen anything more about it.

 

The Council's parking strategy says they will look into banning pavement parking and they could introduce traffic regulation orders to do it, however, I'd think it would cause as many problems as it would solve. It might work ok in the city centre, but outside, as has been pointed out here, there are areas where people pretty much have to park partly on the pavement to let other traffic past.

 

The government have taken away some to the tools used by the Council to enforce against problem parking. For example they used to be able to enforce on No Waiting / No Loading restrictions (like on Burngreave Rd) via camera , but the Government took away those powers, so it has to be done by civil enforcement officers on foot. They do visit most areas but there aren't that many of them so they concentrate on primary routes at peak times, school entrances, city centre and  permit zones. The rest get occasional visits.

 

They don't "ignore" the areas you quote and I'm sure if you asked Parking Services, they could provide you with the numbers of tickets they've issued.

 

Part of the issue is that the parking problems are often caused by the local people themselves. The solution is normally to put in permit parking zones and lots of restrictions that can be enforced. However, they Council have to consult and if most residents say they don't want such restrictions, the Council don't normally force it on them.  The area around the Northern General Hospital is a case in point. The Council consulted on a permit zone after receiving many complaints, but local people said they didn't want permit parking. I was told that this was because they did not want to pay for permits  (£36 per annum for first permit, £72 for second / subsequent) as many were on low incomes.

 

Lorries regularly spreading mud on the highway is something the Council can and will enforce on. Drop the highways team a line on: highways@sheffield.gov.uk and tell them where  / when it happens.

59 minutes ago, bassett one said:

i brought up this subject on many occasions ,with the same SCC answer,i told them when we had all the equipment at our disposal we could fashion out our roads as we resurfaced them,there was never a better time,to put in parking spaces ,instead of folk parking on grass verges as the roads in my area are narrow,also theres loads of grass land could of been used and this would solve the problem of pavement parking,all i ever got was amey only had enough money to do what the SCC said could be done,what a wasted oppertunity as all the equipment was there to do the job,but alas thats SCC,blame the goverment for everthing.

The contract the Council have with Amey is to maintain the highway. If improvements are needed the Council have to pay extra, so, funding is an issue.

 

Verges often have buried services in them and it can cost a small fortune to protect or divert them if you want to harden the verge so that vehicles can run on them.

 

There's also the issue of whether it's actually a good idea to tarmac over verges.

 

[Resident 1,185]

3 hours ago, Planner1 said:

<snipped>

 

Verges often have buried services in them and it can cost a small fortune to protect or divert them if you want to harden the verge so that vehicles can run on them.

 

There's also the issue of whether it's actually a good idea to tarmac over verges.

 

Instead of tarmac could the council not consider grid matting. I'm sure I've seen it before on a verge. 

 

Can't remember what it's called but it looks similar to this

 

[MunXy 10]

17 hours ago, lil-minx92 said:

The people that moan about parking problems on their road would be the first to object to the road being double yellow lined. What they really mean is 'I want to park outside my house but sometimes I cant coz somebody else got there first'.

Your house was cheaper because it didn't come with parking so dont moan that you cant park!

No minx in point of fact I park in a off road car park, what I'm complaining about is barely being able to get in through my front gate, outside my house and the fact that as I stated just down from me a disabled guys motorised wheel chair had been "boxed in" outside his house, so please don't think you know everyone's circumstances or decide that other people's problems have no merit because they don't apply to you, these are real problems, some on my road have regular ambulance visits because of health issues, but the ambulances have to park perhaps 50-100 yards away before running to the house in question. Perhaps you think the ambulance men should just get on with it and not moan about valuable seconds lost because some lazy individual doesn't want to walk an extra 50 feet to get to work or the shop or whatever,.

check out disabled and mother and toddler parking at supermarkets, cars, work vans even taxis using them and hardly ever with a blue badge or child on board, am I moaning because some mother has to park halfway across a busy car park because of lazy, ignorent jackasses for my benefit, no I just believe something should be done to halt the decline of laziness and ignorance that seems to be aimed at law abiding people that for one reason or another need parking not taken by lazy cretins.

[Cyclone 10]

23 minutes ago, MunXy said:

No minx in point of fact I park in a off road car park, what I'm complaining about is barely being able to get in through my front gate, outside my house and the fact that as I stated just down from me a disabled guys motorised wheel chair had been "boxed in" outside his house, so please don't think you know everyone's circumstances or decide that other people's problems have no merit because they don't apply to you, these are real problems, some on my road have regular ambulance visits because of health issues, but the ambulances have to park perhaps 50-100 yards away before running to the house in question. Perhaps you think the ambulance men should just get on with it and not moan about valuable seconds lost because some lazy individual doesn't want to walk an extra 50 feet to get to work or the shop or whatever,.

check out disabled and mother and toddler parking at supermarkets, cars, work vans even taxis using them and hardly ever with a blue badge or child on board, am I moaning because some mother has to park halfway across a busy car park because of lazy, ignorent jackasses for my benefit, no I just believe something should be done to halt the decline of laziness and ignorance that seems to be aimed at law abiding people that for one reason or another need parking not taken by lazy cretins.

Imagine for a minute that the council could somehow ticket people for parking legally.

How are they to tell if a particular car is owned by a cretin saving 50 m walk to the shops?  Or owned by the occupier of the house which it's outside?

[MunXy 10]

Touché cyclone, except for the fact government agencies can access in seconds the dvla data base telling them tax, test, insurance AND home address of the car, so pretty easily I'd guess, but I take your point, I have photos of fox street, pitsmoor and some vehicles are parked so far on the kerb a relatively average sized person would have to turn sideways to pass, not just one car/van but several.

the double buggy test would fail several times in a 20 yard stretch, the most galling part is, a little further up fox street are several places where these people could park, incomoding no one, but would mean an extra 30 yard walk round the corner to the building site the people "parking" need to get to.

laziness as opposed to actual need.

[Planner1 428]

15 hours ago, Resident said:

Instead of tarmac could the council not consider grid matting. I'm sure I've seen it before on a verge. 

 

 

They could, but it's generally an unsatisfactory half way house that doesn't look very good.

 

The main point is whether or not it is a good thing to have vehicles parked on verges. The Council's current position is that in general, it is not.

 

3 hours ago, MunXy said:

No minx in point of fact I park in a off road car park, what I'm complaining about is barely being able to get in through my front gate, outside my house and the fact that as I stated just down from me a disabled guys motorised wheel chair had been "boxed in" outside his house

As I've said earlier, the Police already have powers to deal with obstruction, so you need to take it up with them.

 

There is no sign whatsoever from the government that they are interested in giving Councils powers to deal with this issue, so you are stuck with what there is.

 

3 hours ago, MunXy said:

 

I just believe something should be done to halt the decline of laziness and ignorance that seems to be aimed at law abiding people that for one reason or another need parking not taken by lazy cretins.

What exactly is it that you think should be done and by whom?

 

3 hours ago, MunXy said:

Touché cyclone, except for the fact government agencies can access in seconds the dvla data base telling them tax, test, insurance AND home address of the car, so pretty easily I'd guess, but I take your point, I have photos of fox street, pitsmoor and some vehicles are parked so far on the kerb a relatively average sized person would have to turn sideways to pass, not just one car/van but several.

the double buggy test would fail several times in a 20 yard stretch, the most galling part is, a little further up fox street are several places where these people could park, incomoding no one, but would mean an extra 30 yard walk round the corner to the building site the people "parking" need to get to.

laziness as opposed to actual need.

So have you reported it to the Police and asked for action to be taken?

3 hours ago, MunXy said:

some on my road have regular ambulance visits because of health issues, but the ambulances have to park perhaps 50-100 yards away before running to the house in question. Perhaps you think the ambulance men should just get on with it and not moan about valuable seconds lost because some lazy individual doesn't want to walk an extra 50 feet to get to work or the shop or whatever,.

The ambulance has probably had to battle through heavy traffic to get to your street anyway, so a few seconds longer to walk to the house isn't going to make much difference. This is an issue that emergency services face in many locations across the city. They are pragmatic about it and recognise that it's just a problem caused by the way we all live nowadays. If the emergency services have a real issue, they will raise it with the appropriate authorities who will of course try to assist.

3 hours ago, MunXy said:

check out disabled and mother and toddler parking at supermarkets, cars, work vans even taxis using them and hardly ever with a blue badge or child on board, 

Supermarket owners have a remedy against people who park in contravention of the rules they apply to their car parks. They (or their contractors) can issue penalties (or invoices if you want to be accurate) which have been proved to be enforceable in court. Councils can and do enforce against misuse of disabled parking bays (where it is an enforceable one, some are only advisory) and they can and do enforce against misuse of blue badges.

 

I'd therefore say that most of the issues you are raising already have a remedy in place.

Edited November 24, 2018 by Planner1

[spilldig 185]

22 hours ago, amnicoll said:

I seem to remember in London it was illegal to park on the pavement unless there was a sign saying you could but I am not sure what the legal situation is in Sheffield but certainly it would appear that there is no enforcement

 

I remember hearing the story somewhere of some one who lived on a bus route on a narrowish road and used to park on the pavement until he got a ticket from the police and then the next day after he parked on the road he was asked by the bus driver  to move his car so the bus could get past - he refused and told the bus company to contact the police

 

 

Doesn't  work here. We regularly had a car which stopped the numbers 13 and 14 buses running. The police said, if the car was legally parked, which it was, the buses had to divert. We as bus operators would have liked double yellow lines along at least one side of every bus route but it's not feasable.