Parking on Pavements.

The nature of the ward – very narrow streets and lack of parking provision – leading to vehicles being parked on pavements has been exacerbated during Covid 19. All Saints Street and Stonegate Street suffer particularly, parked vehicles there are making it impossible for invalid scooters and young parents with baby buggies to pass and pedestrians have to resort to walking in the road.

The forum wrote to Inspector Robert Button, adding our support to the newly-formed Bridge Street & All Saints St. Residents Association, asking if there had been a relaxation in the rules relating to parking on pavements during COVID-19 and, if not, why these vehicles had not been served with parking tickets.
To our surprise – amazement even – Constable Lee Anderton the West Norfolk Community Engagement officer replied to say there is no such offence as parking on pavements!

This is his reply:
The Highway Code does state that you should not park on the pavement, rule 244, as you may obstruct and inconvenience all pedestrians. Unfortunately this is a code of practice for motorists and unless there is legislation attached to the rule then it is not enforceable.
 
There is an offence of driving on the pavement but drivers must be found doing so by a police officer to be able to prove beyond all reasonable doubt should the matter go to court. The next offence which could be considered is obstruction but the law states that the person being obstructed cannot continue their journey in the direction they wish to go. Basically that means if the person has to turn around and find another route then they have been obstructed, if however they can get around the obstruction by stepping into the road or crossing over the road to the other pavement then there is no obstruction and it is purely an inconvenience, they may have to use care to do this.
 
Now having said all of the above I have looked at the area in question and I can see that most of the roads have some form of parking restriction, yellow lines and visible restriction plates on posts. These restrictions should go from boundary line to boundary line, so in towns most pavements are covered and tickets can be issued for a parking offence. In 2012 all parking enforcement was taken away from the police (except for clearway offences) and passed onto the local civil authorities for enforcement. Here in King’s Lynn it is the responsibility of the borough council. Police officers no longer have parking tickets and cannot deal with this type of offence, and can only deal with clearway offences, so anyone contravening the parking restrictions in the area will need to be dealt with by civil parking enforcement officers employed by the borough council.
 
Following this Cllr Lesley Bambridge. Ward councilor and ward forum vice chairman asked if this applied to bus lanes too. She had checked Millfleet/Stonegate Street and found that vehicles park on the pavement alongside the bus lane with part of the car actually on the pavement; there aren’t single or double yellow lines here.

Constable Anderton replied that parking in bus lanes is a totally different offence dealt with by the parking enforcement officer. Driving in a bus lane is also prohibited and can be dealt with by police officers. Yellow lines do not need to be on the road as long as there is a traffic regulation order for the street and it is displayed on a yellow plate in the street concerned.