Diesel surcharges for Haringey parking

The London Borough of Haringey plans to introduce an £80 diesel surcharge on residential parking permits and a 25 per cent diesel surcharge for parking on-street and in council-owned car parks. Haringey currently issues about 7,800 parking permits for diesel vehicles and 44 per cent of vehicles using on-street and car parks are diesels.

The council has rejected exempting the cleanest diesels, Euro 6. “Several cities are taking steps to ban all diesel-fuelled vehicles from city centres, and our policies support the view that the use of all diesel fuelled vehicles should be discouraged.”

The surcharges for on-street and car parking are subject to the council finalising arrangements for the delivery of contactless payments and moving to a new pay-by-phone provider. “Whilst technical capabilities exist, the business case, taking account of all associated costs, needs further development, which can only be done once both contracts have been awarded and implemented,” said officers.  

1.5-metre exemption for footway parking? 

Councils in Scotland are likely to be able to exempt streets from the country’s new pavement parking ban if the width of unobstructed footway with a vehicle parked remains at least 1.5 metres wide. The prohibition on footway parking features in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 but the precise details will be set out in regulations being drafted. John Berry, Dundee City Council’s parking and sustainable transport team leader, told councillors: “The Act will prohibit pavement parking unless an exemption order is in place. The regulations that support this part of the Act will determine minimum footway widths, level of penalty charges and a national implementation date. It is anticipated that exemption orders will only be permitted where a minimum footway width of 1.5m is retained.” Berry said Dundee had a high level of demand for on-street parking because much of its housing was in tenements. “There has been an historic acceptance of pavement parking in some parts of the city, and we will need to work with local communities to determine where exemption orders may be appropriate.” 

Pavement parking ban for England?

The Government is to consult on introducing a nationwide ban on pavement parking in England, with the offence decrimininalised. Local authorities in London can already use civil enforcement for but outside the capital obstructing the pavement is a police responsibility. Any national ban would include provision for councils to exempt streets.