I read with great interest and a commonly viewed response to the Why's and Wherefores of blocking a driveway. I have been searching for weeks now on the net and all law books at my reference library and cannot find the actual National Legislated Law on this subject. if someone knows could they please post. As far as I can gather it goes like this.....
'If a vehicle is visible in the drive the house occupier/owner must pursue the driver through the Local Police or Council for Obstruction..
If a vehicle is not visible then it is lawfully permissible to park.
Reason being is that the owner/occupier does not buy exclusitivity to that part of the highway he only has a right to cross the pavement via the dropped kerbs with a vehicle.
So its confirmation by way of the actual law I require.
Thanks in advance
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If a vehicle is not visible then it is lawfully permissible to park.
I thought that as long as there was a dropped kerb, parking wasn't allowed to park next to it?
If this is the case then maybe it should say it in the Highway Code?
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Section 14 London Local Authorities and Transport for London Act 2003 is the only Act that I know of which makes it a specific offence of parking opposite a dropped kerb.
But:In the case where-
(a) residential premises have a driveway which is not shared by other premises; and
(b) the purpose of the dropped footway is to assist vehicles to enter or leave the road from or to the driveway,
the relevant borough council or Transport for London, as the case may be, may not issue a penalty charge notice in respect of any breach of the prohibition under subsection (3) above unless requested to do so by the occupier of the premises.
Otherwise out in the sticks one has to use obstruction under Con and Use Regs or Highways Act..
dvd
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Dunno (and doubt) whether there is something specific in law about drop kerbs. I would consider it reasonable (personally) to expect someone to be booked for a simple "Causing an Unnecessary Obstruction" if they blocked a driveway whether a car/vehicle was visible or not. I think the below follows my thinking.
www.freelawyer.co.uk/vlawyer/actfile.asp?seq=4&sub...6
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If you block all or part of a driveway to a property then you are causing an obstruction. The police still have powers to deal with any such instances.
I would suspect that it doesn't necessarily have to be a vehicle involved
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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I was told it is "obstruction" to stop someone leaving a Driveway but not if someone wants to access it.
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Unless it was a Law Lord I wouldn't take their word for it.
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Lived is a street when a CPZ was put in, double yellow was put across the drives enforcing the fact that one should not park across a dropped kerb, single yellow elsewhere (except for the parking bays) applicable only in CPZ times (11:00 to 15:00 IIRC), problem was it reduced the capacity of the road because those with drives such as ourselves could no longer park across their own driveways.
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>>double yellow was put across the drives>>
Slightly different in parts of my town where this is done, especially in the town centre, as a single solid white line is painted outside property entrances and where pavements have a dropped section for wheelchair or pedestrian movements, such as at road corners.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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I think this is a very grey area, I have read lots that say it is an offence to block someone in, but if the driveway is empty then there is no automatic right of entry - I have recently queried it with both plod and our local highways authority, mainly because we have had a problem round here with parking and the measures that have been taken to try and "make it better". There was a site called neighbours from hell, or something, and there was a lot on there about it.
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Park across a driveway and don't moan about a ticket if you get one.
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I did, and I didn't get one - did have a nice long chat with plod though, before they agreed that I was correct and they were not. Would like to see some hard evidence either way though - I have just spent the best part of the last 30 minutes looking for a firm answer - still not found one - any one know of any case law?
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Taking this a bit further - Is the Highway Code actually law? or is it a concise interpretation of the law? Apparantly HC rule 217 ?DO NOT PARK in front of an entrance to a property? would make it illegal to do so, but if the HC is not actual law then would you not have to have the ticket issued for something under the RTA?
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I look upon it as common courtesy not to park across someone's drive or access to premises, something which is sadly lacking a great deal in today's society.
:0(
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Have just found this snippet:-
More Highway Code Information:
Many of the rules in the Code are legal requirements, and if you disobey these rules you are committing a criminal offence. You may be fined, given penalty points on your licence or be disqualified from driving. In the most serious cases you may be sent to prison. Such rules are identified by the use of the words MUST / MUST NOT. In addition the rule includes an abbreviated reference to the legislation which creates the offence.
Although failure to comply with the other rules of the Code will not, it itself, cause a person to be prosecuted, The Highway Code may be used in evidence in any court proceedings under Traffic Acts to establish liability.
Knowing and applying the rules contained in The Highway Code could significantly reduce road accident casualties. Cutting the number of deaths and injuries that occur on our roads every day is a responsibility we all share. The Highway Code can help us discharge that responsibility.
Taken from the Highway Code Website.
so it would seen rule 217 is not actually law, according the Highway code anyway.
I think I may have just answered my own question - Mensa test next me thinks ;o)
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"didn't get one "
My daughter did, in N London. Parked over a dropped kerb at disused old entrance to a park late one evening until 7 next morning (no white or yellow lines). Her car was booked and towed away overnight and it cost her (OK, me!) a small fortune to get it back. She initially reported it as stolen at police station because of course, she didn't know it had been towed. Police are also not informed of cars which are towed away apparently, so only realised later that day when she rang police to ask if any news on her "stolen" car - a friendly copper suggested that she tried the car-pound. She was pleased to get her car back but the cost was about £160 I think (and that does not count the cost of her 50 mile journey to work, the fact that she was very late for work and very late home. Frustrating times - but a lesson learnt!! Few days after, some friendly chap left the imprint of his big right boot on her boot - nice big dent also in her pride and joy first new car. Oh what fun it must be to live in London. (No smiley!!)
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Phil
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big dent also in her pride andjoy first new car. Oh what fun it must be to live in London. (No smiley!!) -- Phil
Tell me about it PW. 20 years ago in the East End, where I sometimes worked in an office, used to park in a sort of dead end giving way to a pedestrian pathway and tunnel to Commercial Road. Instead of parking very close to the wall, which was my instinct, I left a space of about a foot and a bit for tottering pedestrians to pass in a straight line. Big mistake. Someone used the wall to press in with his or her back both the offside door panels of my pretty silver Renault 18GTX (they were fragile to put it mildly).
The proportion of absolute toerags doesn't have to be very high to ensure occasional misery in a town of 8 million odd.
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"The proportion of absolute toerags doesn't have to be very high to ensure occasional misery in a town of 8 million odd"
Agree Lud,
I wouldn't want to be seen as impugning the integrity of all Londoners (my daughter is one!!) - it only needs a few to make it unpleasant for everybody - there are plenty of toerags in my local "big city" of 50,000 - including quite a few, according to local rag, who enjoy running over the top of parked cars of a Saturday night! Oh, what fun they have!
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Phil
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I'm surprised UK local authorities haven't cottoned on to the Spanish money-raising practice of issuing "permanent access" licences. In return for a small annual fee you get an official no parking sign for garage, drive entrances. With local council tax averaging 100 euros you can't complain!
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PU is correct above...........it can be an offence to cause obstruction in a number of circumstances & what that obstruction is is not dependent on coming in or going out.
My old car is insured on a classic policy, that states it must be locked in the garage if i'm at home with it...if i go out and come back to find someone has blocked my driveway........which frequently happens.... then i can't comply with the insurance and in theory would have to park a 38 year old car on a London street, with no insurance cover over night.
I have successfully had the police tow a car away in the past.
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In the OP, it was asserted that it would be ok to park if no car is visible. In my case, someone could block my drive thinking its ok because there's no car there. But I could get a car out of the garage and invalidate the third party's initially 'legal' parking.
I wouldn't want the rules changed. If both the garage and drive are taken, I have no objection to blocking my own drive and wouldn't want a ticket for doing so.
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It may be an offence subject to a test by Magistrates.
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Guess you are bit too young PU to be aware that Section 28 Town Police Clauses Act 1847 also deals with obstruction to the annoyance or danger of residents etc
Take him down - 14days.
Off tack wonderful catch all Act/Section. Advice to any young Plods reading look it up and learn. Used it as a probationer for violent conduct in a Police Station.
As PU states it will be the Magistrates ruling as it is a question of fact for them to decide in each case (Wade v Grange [1977] ) having regard to the length of time the onstruction continued, the place where it occurred, the purpose for which it was done and whether it caused an actual as opposed to a potential obstruction. (Nagy v Weston[ 1965])
Again from my experiences - RAC Rally Boltby Forest Stage, many,many many moons ago. Spectator parked across farm entrance and departed. Farmer came down with tractor and hay grab and lifted car clear. He was done for crimininal damage to underneath of car and spectator for obstruction.
dvd
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DVD,
No I'm not ! I was going to post this but is it still law ? and does it cover E&W ? I had a feeling it was repealed in 1984ish and that it was restricted to Metropolitan areas.
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TPCA used to be when first hit the Statute Book confined to urban areas. However sometime around 60/70's in a Public Health Act it was extended to both rural and urban and is still current.
dvd
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