Time to put a curb on inconsiderate parking

IT IS SELFISH, thoughtless and above all else it is dangerous.

Today the Evening Leader launches its Park Smart campaign to stop inconsiderate parking.

We feel strongly about public safety and have identi-fied dangerous parking as a definite matter of concern.

With the backing of local Liberal Democrats Cllr Sue Proctor and Cllr Molly Hale, The Leader is call-ing for an end to illegal and insensitive parking that is putting pedestrians under inpreventable danger.

In our city one person a month is seriously injured as a result of inconsiderately parked vehicles and one fifth of those injured is a child.

The Leader is calling for action to be taken, and responsibility to be acknowledged both by the local authority and the police in improving law enforce-ment.

We are looking to improve the consistency of enforcement and the extent to which penalty notices are imposed. The Leader is calling for a zero-tolerance attitude towards illegal parking in the city.

The biggest problem is drivers who show no respect for the rest of the public, showing disregard for the law by parking on double yellow lines and in zigzag zones and often mounting the pavements and grass verges.

The potential risk of serious injury is far too great and can be easily avoided if due care and attention is taken.

In 1992 London introduced a zero tolerance policy towards road safety and banned cars from parking on the pavement – an action which many drivers do without realising the inconvenience and potential danger created.

Having acknowledged the problems elsewhere, we believe it is time to consider other badly affected areas.

Not only is The Leader seeking a change in enforce-ment measures but is appealing to the hearts and minds of the people of Chester.

We also look to gain awareness across the city mak-ing every driver aware of the potential risk of danger-ous and illegal parking.

The Leaders most recent campaign calls for drivers to park safely; manageably; attentively; responsibly and thoughtfully [SMART].

We understand in some areas pavement parking may be unavoidable, but illegal parking is certainly not.

Nonetheless both should be avoided at all costs.Cars parked inconsiderately cause danger and such

actions are thoughtless, careless and shameful. Drivers need to consider public safety over their

wing mirrors.Under no circumstances is the safety of a car placed

above the safety of the public.

Councillors have raised concerns over the safety of the city’s pedestrians; street after street is plagued with cars that park inconsiderately and dangerously. Dan Morris reports on the lacklustre approach to law enforcement that is putting the public at risk.

Council neglect public saftey

number of traffic wardens pa-trolling the roads today has de-creased by 21 per cent in the last three years and it would seem the situation can only get worse.

Hoole is an area overwhelmed with vehicles mounting curbs and parking on yellow lines. Al-beit for only a few minutes, car after car comes and goes as fran-tic shoppers stop off for a sand-wich, paper, or bunch of flowers.

To an observer it seems nor-mal; and to pedestrians in Hoole, having to painstakingly manoeu-vre through the obstacle course that be, is a day to day activity - Cars on the pavement are a part of the furniture.

Retired, Charles McCluskey, 76, of Hoole describes the situ-ation as “ridiculous”, welcoming the introduction of civil parking enforcement.

Charles cannot hide his anger as he speaks about the situation. A resident of Chester all his life, he has witnessed firsthand the expansion the city’s infrastruc-ture but in his words “he has never seen anything like it.

“These days drivers show no respect for pedestrians especially not elderly people like me, he said. It’s selfish, it’s wrong and pavements should be left clear for pedestrians.”

As he highlighted three in-stances of illegal parking, all in the space of one hundred yards, there is no doubt the problem is endemic.

Gloria Poole, 55, of Mickle Trafford is among those who battle with the cars week in week out to shop in Hoole. Hav-ing shopped there for the last 20 years it seems despite the in-convenience caused, it will take more than a few inconsiderate drivers to put her off shopping.

Her concern is civil parking en-forcement will drive people out of shopping centres like Hoole because “people simply won’t be able to park anywhere.

“It’s just another way of mak-ing money.”

The hassle of having to find a space, pay to park - and all for just 10 minutes - isn’t worth the hassle she says

In a matter of fact way Richard Nickson road safety manager for Cheshire county council admits when we’re drivers we seem to have a perverse attitude to break-ing the law.

“Having the opinion I’ll only

be a couple of minutes, is not the attitude.

“The problem is the police will only enforce the law where they feel a safety issue has been raised and an obstruction.”

The Department for Transport has recognised the problem and has developed successful meas-ures to curb this issue.

Civil parking enforcement, now 17 years old, was respon-sible for the £5 million paid by drivers who parked illegally last year.

Leicester City Council are just one of many that have gone ahead with civil parking enforce-ment and in its first four months saw the amount of parking tickets enforced soar beyond 20,000.

Illegally parked vehicles cost the council thousands of pounds a year, in damage to paving, damage to grass verges and cause potentially serious problems for blind, disabled and older people

The council as a highway au-thority has responsibility to keep the roads and footpaths safe to use.

“This is the fairest, most cost effective and the most efficient way of curbing illegal parking and protecting the public. By no means are we as the council looking to make money out of the public”said Colin Stredder area highways manager.

David Bennett Cheshire Coun-ty Council parking services man-ager accepts the fact that there are areas in Chester were you can park on double yellow lines and there is a good chance you’ll get away with it.

People are keen to ignore the law and it’s an obvious problem, he said.

Mr Bennett added: “The Po-lice would like to do other things with their staffing and have been slowly winding down their traffic warden side of their operation.

“We want to see the enforce-ment beefed up a bit and this will give us an opportunity to see enforcement carried out more effectively than it is at the mo-ment.”

The police don’t have the time and the council don’t have the power –story of our times some might say - but there is no doubt law enforcement has seen better days; on the contrary, Andy Jones continues to plough through the hypocrisy of Ches-ter’s streets. Are things likely to change soon? “No” he says.

COUNCILLORS met yesterday to discuss the dangers created by parking on pavements and grass verges.

The issue was first raised last month by Liberal Demo-crats Cllr Sue Proctor and Cllr Molly Hale.

Richard Nickson, road safety manager for Cheshire County Council, told a meet-ing with the executive: “The issue doesn’t manifest itself in road safety problems.

“I’m not dismissing it as a genuine problem, the streets around Chester were never built to accommodate the ever growing number of cars on our roads today.

“But unfortunately very little can be done to stop it.”

Cllr Hale said: “When a pedestrian has to step out into the road because the footpath is obstructed, this issue becomes a matter of road safety.”

She added: “This is a very common problem; there isn’t an area in Chester that isn’t affected.”

Despite being an offence to drive on footways many drivers disregard this legisla-tion, endangering pedes-trians.

Inconsiderate parking cause’s dangers to people of all age, said Cllr Hale, not to mention young children, the elderly and those with mobility impairment.

Cllr Proctor identified inconsiderate parking as a nightmare situation for people with disabilities and parents with buggies.

Mother Lauren Burke, 27, of Kingsway said: “When pushing a buggy, being forced to step out into the road is extremly dangerous.

In the last three years 49 personal injury collisions involving a pedestrian and a parked or stationary

vehicle have been recorded - of these eight involved children.

Labour’s transportation spokesman Peter Byrne said: “From what I see when travelling around the county – and indeed closer to home – parking on pavements seems a growing problem.”

Multi occupational houses and overly congested roads are just a few of the issues that have contributed to this rise.

Independent environment spokesman Arthur Moran said: “In town centers you invariably find that there is always parking on pave-ments: This has got to stop.”

While councilors agreed dangerous parking was a threat to public safety they chose to take no further action .

The council asked drivers to think sensibly about where they park and to not park on pavements.

severly overdueCivil parking enforcement

By Dan Morris

Fixed Penalty Notice: One car in Hoole receives a parking ticket for parking illegally

A ndy Jones writes parking tickets in his sleep, or so it would seem he

does it so often.As he steps on to the streets for

another day on the beat, it seems there is not much that would sur-prise him.

“Shocking could be one way of describing some of the parking you see doing this job day in day out” said Andy.

A recent RAC study revealed 20 per cent of Britain’s motorists broke most driving laws, while 15 per cent said the benefits of break-ing most minor laws outweighed the risk of getting caught.

As a traffic warden patrolling the streets of Chester Andy admits the police don’t have the time to devote to parking offences.

Inconsiderate parking has be-come more pervasive than ever. Could a team of devoted traffic wardens employed by the council be just the ticket?

“Civil enforcement would defi-nitely be a step in the right direc-tion” said Andy.

Concerns over the safety of pe-destrians were raised after Chesh-ire County Council dismissed

badly parked vehicles as a matter of public safety – despite careless parking resulting in 12 cases of serious injury in the last year.

Councillors raised issues of pub-lic safety saying pedestrians are under threat from selfish drivers who park thoughtlessly and care-lessly endangering those around them.

The extent of illegal parking in the city has become a real concern and new legislation was set to put a stop to it.

In 1991 the government paved the way for a dramatic change in the responsibilities of parking laws.

Late November was to see the introduction of new regulations giving the power to local authori-ties to control law enforcement with regards to parking offences. But the proposed introduction of civil parking enforcement has been postponed indefinitely the Leader can reveal.

The Department for Transport is responsible for the implementa-tion of civil parking enforcement and have - not for the first time - delayed the application until the New Year.

This would see the county coun-cil employ wardens to enforce

penalty charge notices, taking the responsibility off of the po-lice, and allowing this area of the law to receive the attention it so craves.

Jane Makin community safety officer said: “The police cannot be everywhere.

“Varying demands on their time means they are unable to enforce inconsiderate parking to the de-gree it is required.”

She added: “The number of ve-hicles on the road is growing with numbers of parking spaces not following the same pattern.

According to Jane, this coupled with growing demands on peo-ples time equates to an increasing amount of inconsiderate parking, and civil parking enforcement will reduce the pressure on police and ensure enforcement of this is-sue increases.

Department for Transport fig-ures show there are a stagger-ing 30.6 million cars in the UK and statistically, a road user will receive a penalty charge notice every three to four years. While a study revealed by the British parking association states there are about 29 million parked vehi-cles in the UK.

Link this with the fact the

Blocking the path: Lauren Burke and her child are forced to step out into the road

PARK SMART

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