Pavement parking issues raised

Cheshire East Council will await government decision before banning pavement parking.

The council’s Highways and Transport Committee was asked about plans to repair pavements at a recent meeting.

Val Scaresbrook of Congleton Sustainable Travel asked: “Is a pavement parking ban also proposed to reduce damage and to restore safe spaces for users?”

Head of Strategic Transport and Parking, Richard Hibbert, told Ms Scaresbrook: “A pavement parking ban is still to be considered, but it is signalled by the Secretary of State for Transport there is to be a national piece of guidance published, potentially accompanying the new national transport strategy, in response to a consultation the DfT ran some considerable time ago.

“It is clearly prudent for the council to await that national position before we decide how to proceed.”

Counc. Mark Goldsmith said the council had been asking for a pavement parking ban for a long time “Cheshire East Council is the leading authority in the patrol group, which is the group of councils outside of London that meet to discuss parking and the management of our roads and enforcement of our roads, and it’s something that we have been asking for for almost a decade,” he said.

“They have those powers of pavement parking in London, but not outside of London, and we would like them, but the government has maybe kicked it into the long grass previously, so we’re hoping that more will come.”

With regard to pavement repairs he said: “I also totally get your sentiment about pavements.

“Yes, we would love to improve them more, but the £800,000 we have [active travel funding] is not going to go very far on the pavements, it would very, very quickly be swallowed up.”