Renewed call for action on pavement parking

Living Streets delivers message to new transport secretary

Catherine Woodhead, chief executive of Living Streets, and Simon Lightwood MP

The Labour government has been urged to introduce a nationwide ban on pavement parking.

Living Streets, the UK charity for everyday walking has written to new transport secretary Louise Haigh MP calling for action on pavement parking.

Living Streets and a range of other organisations want to see an end to pavement parking, which causes particular danger for blind and disabled people.

The charity delivered a ‘greeting card’ to the Department for Transport. Over 5,000 people and organisations signed the card asking for the results from the government’s consultation into pavement parking in England to be published. The consultation closed in November 2020 and no response or action plan has followed. In the meantime, Scotland has become the first UK nation to roll out a ban.

Catherine Woodhead, chief executive of Living Streets handed the greeting card to Louise Haigh’s minister for local transport, Simon Lightwood MP on 10 September.

“The new transport secretary has said she wants to move fast and fix things; putting an end to pavement parking is a great place to start,” said Woodhead.

“Blocked pavements leave older people feeling trapped in their own homes and forces wheelchair users into the road. We know that it puts people off walking more of their everyday journeys and costs councils millions to repair cracked and damaged pavements. In a couple of months, it will be four years since the consultation into pavement parking closed. In that time, none of these problems have gone away on their own.

“It’s time to kick pavement parking to – and off – the kerb. We hope the new transport secretary is the person to help us do that.”

Cars blocking pavements are also a problem for families with young children and stops them enjoying the benefits of walking to school.

The National Travel Survey 2023 data released on 28 August shows that just 49% of 5-10-year-olds currently walk to school, lower than the government’s target of 55% by 2025.

The data also revealed that over a fifth (22%) of parents of children who do not currently walk to school said that safer roads, for example with slower speeds, less traffic, more considerate driving, would encourage them to walk to school more often.

Living Streets’ research found that 87% of parents had been forced to step into the road because of a vehicle blocking the pavement.

Kim Creus is a mother of two young children and lives in Stroud. She said: “Walking my four-year old to school is a highlight of my day. It’s a lovely chance for us to spend time together while we both get energised for the day ahead. But it’s often made challenging by cars blocking the pavement, forcing me and his younger brother who’s in a pushchair into the road. If there is enough room to get past, there’s often a fight to be had with a hedge before we can get there.”

A pavement parking ban came into force in Scotland in December 2023. In Edinburgh, residents are seeing improvements in their streets with complaints about pavement parking down almost halved.