Ministers are again stalling on giving councils the powers they promised in January to crack down on pavement (footway) parking.
As I reported at the time, after literally years of delay, in January the government said it would “create powers to enable local transport authorities to prohibit pavement parking in their areas” and in the meantime “enable local authorities to enforce against ‘unnecessary obstruction’ of the pavement”.
And, as I also reported, transport committee chair Ruth Cadbury warned:
The Transport Committee will be watching closely to ensure that legislation is enacted without further delays.
Now a ministerial answer to a written parliamentary question shows that there is further delay.
Helen Maguire, who is my MP, asked the transport secretary:
what additional enforcement powers she plans to give local authorities outside London to tackle pavement parking.
Road minister Justin Madders responded:
The Department for Transport plans to introduce secondary legislation in January 2027 to enable local authorities with civil parking enforcement powers to issue penalty charge notices where a vehicle is parked in a way that unnecessarily obstructs the pavement.
We also plan to introduce secondary legislation to enable local transport authorities to prohibit pavement parking across their areas, subject to appropriate exemptions. The timetable for that secondary legislation has not yet been finalised.
Nine months from the announcement, the publication of the second lot of secondary legislation is still a plan, with no timetable.
It’s almost as if they don’t want to do it.
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