Call for blanket county-wide ban on pavement and verge parking
West Sussex councillors have asked officers to explore the possibility of a county-wide ban on people parking cars on verges and pavements.
The issue was raised during a scrutiny committee meeting where members discussed the county council’s Integrated Parking Strategy 2020-25.
The strategy, which has not been renewed since 2014, lays out the council’s approach as highways authority to issues such as on and offstreet parking controls and regulations.
During a discussion about poorly parked cars obstructing footpaths and the like, the cost and efficiency of Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) was mentioned.
Such orders can be put in place to stop people parking off-road in certain areas – but only a certain amount of money is available, meaning just a fraction of the hundreds of requests for orders received each year go ahead.
Roger Worthing
Oakley (Con, East) suggested flipping the system on its head with a county-wide prohibition on footway and verge obstructions.
He said: “It’s been a longstanding practice in much legislation. You can ban a particular subject across a large area and then give authority for exceptions to be included. A much easier way.
“Can you imagine the cost of trying to do umpteen local TROs?
“It will be much cheaper if we just have one countywide ban and then a number of exemptions in those areas where it couldn’t possibly work.”
Parking manager Miles Davy said a ‘great deal of work’ on the feasibility of just this idea had been carried out by other authorities and the progress was not promising.
Mr Davy also spoke of his ‘disappointment’ with Sussex Police about the constant batting back and forth over whether parking on verges and obstructing footpaths was illegal – and who was responsible for enforcement.
He described how police continuously refer cases of obstruction back to the county council, when it was ‘quite clear’ the authority is not responsible.
He added: “I fully appreciate that their priorities are elsewhere but under the letter of the law they are still responsible for that particular act of obstruction.”