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news
Walthamstow Village (London Borough of Waltham Forest)Waltham Forest Mini Holland: Crackdown on motorists parking in cycle lanes
Waltham Forest council has launched a crackdown on illegal parking in new Mini Holland cycle lanes. There will be extra patrols by traffic wardens and residents are being warned that parking permits could be revoked.
The £30m Mini Holland scheme is aimed at cutting motor traffic and increasing levels of cycling and walking. However, a number of motorists have been parking in bike lanes. The London Evening Standard reports that the problem is worse in the evening.
Wardens normally clock off at 10pm, but patrols will now run until 1am, while the next shift will start at 5am rather than 8am.
Members of the public are also being encouraged to take pictures of offending vehicles and to send them to the council.
Clyde Loakes, deputy leader of Waltham Forest Council’s said: “I’m getting increasingly frustrated, as a lot of our residents are, at the amount of pavement parking abuse and now, increasingly, parking on cycle tracks across the borough.
“I’m hoping it’s just a flash in the pan thing as works continue before completion [of the cycle lanes]. I have asked officers to explore what measures could ‘crack the nut’ before it becomes too prolific. This includes looking at, if they have a residents’ parking permit, whether we could revoke it.”
“I don’t think PCNs [parking tickets] often work in themselves. Some of these people seem to be persistently parking on pavements. We are not investing all this money putting in new infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists to see it abused by people who think they are entitled to park anywhere.”
Cycle campaigner Paul Gasson said: “This is a culture change and some people will need a bit of a helping push to help them understand. We still do have a rump of a car culture here where people feel entitled to drive anywhere and park on footways. I really applaud the council for being prepared to take enforcement action.”
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
Latest Comments
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- lesterama 45 min 50 sec ago
I think they had this in mind* *buried in the antipodean psyche
- gazza_d 1 hour 5 min ago
Acts like this should be regarded as domestic terrorism, because that's what it is.
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Maybe everyone will be given those blue plastic shoe covers like they wear on police procedurals?
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19 comments
Oh, and by the way, that photo of idyllic Walthamstow is just the area known as 'The Village' where the council imposed a poorly thought through set of traffic restrictions at the cost of a considerable amount of the budget for Mini Holland just to create a White Middle Class Oasis for the small handful of people that live there.
No, not bitter...
This also highlights how correcting people’s behaviour with strict fines (since sadly for many bigots fines are the only way to “learn”) can go a long way in regard to actually funding infrastructure.
That tweet showing ~800 towings in Frankfurt is pretty eye opening and wouldn’t be crazy to imagine London would easily match that were laws and rules enforced. And that’s leaving hundreds of daily instances of dangerous driving, speeding, texting at the wheel, close passes and so on and so forth...
Sadly it also highlights how the whole “we don’t have enough resources” excuse is nothing but that - an excuse. Enforcing the law would bring in a lot of money and the reason it’s not happening ought to mean there is no real willingness to do it, which is worrying seen how many people are regularly mowed by cars.
My borough is a 20mph one and yet all I face when driving around at that speed is road rage, and close passes when I’m cycling at even more than 20 (legal on a vehicle with no motor). Put 5 people with a speed gun out for a few hours a day and you’ve raised thousands for the community, while contributing to making it safer.
For repeat offenders, tow the car and confiscate it for increasing periods of time.
No like? Don't re-offend then ...
Reminds me of the late Michael Winner who, when his local borough announced they would no longer tow badly parked cars, declared it was wonderful as he could park his Bentley anywhere for only £60.
Give the "parkers" a dam good thrashing.
Where people have too much money - and perhaps this is one such location - they seem happy to break the law as they easily can afford the "price" of the fine. Two alternatives suggest themselves as deterrents:
Apply fines that scale to the incomes of the fined.
Tow the offending vehicles so that inconvenience rather than cash is the fine.
Cugel
This is how a German would do it
https://twitter.com/stadt_ffm/status/1058385800633704448
This. Problem will disappear almost overnight if all cars impounded and this fact is publicised. Inconvenience much bigger deterrent than fines especially for the monied few.
Meanwhile in Vilnius, Lithuania the mayor has a different approach. He even cycles and cleans up his mess. https://youtu.be/V-fWN0FmcIU
Sadly this is the exception in Germany (otherwise it also wouldn't be news).
Penalties for illegally parking are also a joke in Germany. It is only painful if your car gets towed.
How about linking the amount of the fine to the number of times that the vehicle has been fined? That'd make it exponentially expensive and the car can then be towed when the fine amount reaches the approximate value of the car.
e.g. 1st fine = £100
2nd fine = £300
3rd fine = £700
4th fine = £1500
5th fine = £2900
...
Walthamstow is definitely not one of those areas where people have too much money. It is one of those areas with lazy, incompetent police and parking enforcers who happily park in cycle lanes and ride their mopeds the wrong way up one way streets.
I was under the impression that parking on the pavement was actually illegal, rather than a simply parking infraction, and could therefore be passed to the Police to prosecute the owner/driver..
Then add a repeat offender factor . . first offence, normal fine, 2nd offence withint 3 months, double the fine, 3rd offence, double it again, and so on...
Only in London. Elsewhere driving on the pavement is the offence.
So unless a driver can submit video evidence of their vehicle being lifted onto the pavement an offence has been commited....
In any case "Parking so as to cause an obstruction" to traffic or pedestrians should be a simple tow-away case.
You'd need a video of the car being driven _onto_ the pavement. You might reasonably assume that the car had been driven there but that isn't proof. Presumption of innocence and all that.
Given the perfectly clear video evidence of driving offences the Met claim was "insufficient" I suspect you'd need a full 4K film crem, with lights etc to get sufficient proof . . . which "might" put some off parking.
PCNs have no "innocent until proven innocent" . . "But I parked further up the hill, my handbrake must have slipped"
What they claim is that they pushed the car onto the footpath. Of course, when asked to move it, they are incapable of pushing it off, when they claim that their prop forward mates did it for them. However, if they then drive off, they have committed the offence of driving on the footpath.
WHAT THE POLICE SAY!
In England and Wales, local councils can make an order prohibiting parking on the pavement. If this is the case, then there will be signs/markings that clearly point out on a particular road where parking on the pavement is specifically prohibited. The penalty for contravening this will be a fixed penalty notice.
If not specifically prohibited, parking a vehicle on the pavement could lead to an offence of obstruction being committed. This could result in a fixed penalty notice being issued to offending vehicles. This is because parking on the pavement can obstruct pedestrians and wheelchair users forcing them to use the road to pass a parked vehicle.
Waiting restrictions indicated by yellow lines apply to the road, pavements and verges. Therefore, it is still against the law to park on the pavement/verge by the side of yellow lines.
It should also be noted that unless you are accessing your property via lowered kerb driveway, it is an offence to drive on the pavement.
The above provisions apply even if you only have one or two wheels on the pavement and they also apply to motorcycles.
Whilst the above information represents the general position in England and Wales, there may be regional variations to this, for example, in London there is essentially a blanket ban.
It's an offence to park a goods vehicle over 7.5 tonnes on the verge or pavement.
It will depend on the circumstances as to who you should report problems with pavement parking to. Your local council will usually deal with vehicles in breach of parking restrictions e.g. yellow lines, whereas your local police will usually deal with vehicles driving on the pavement or causing an obstruction. You can contact your local police via 101 and your council via the link below: