he needs to start hitting the owners with it.

I blame the popularity of "off-road vehicles". People take the name way too literally!

I've known someone to sharpen the rivets on their jeans and "accidentally" rub against the car's paintwork. I've also known mirrors and door panels to get badly damaged by people struggling to get past with wheelchairs.

But the answer is to phone the police - especially if you're in a wheelchair.

Can I ask one question though? Why, when people are pushing a buggy with a youngster in to, do they push the buggy first into the road? Should they not PULL the buggy to protect the youngster for as long as possible and not let it get hit by the passing car who wouldn't be able to see it?

And that is why (outside of London) the authorities mostly take a common sense approach to enforcement. Not surprisingly the OP has dreamt up a scenario where a severe obstruction is being caused to pedestrians to highlight his point, but in many cases having 2 and sometimes even 4 wheels on a wide enough pavement can happen without an obstruction being caused to pedestrians.


How does clamping a vehicle remove the obstruction?

In the area where I live, parking issues have been taken away from the Police and handed to the council for enforcement. Strictly speaking parking any portion of a motor vehicle on a pavement is illegal and in theory the vehicle could get a ticket but it never happens. I think if drivers were more considerate and ensured that if they had to park partially off road, them they should leave enough room for pedestrians to get past, including prams wheel chairs etc.

I like the idea of being obvious about taking a photo of the car - especially if the driver is in it.

i think of that every time!!!

but my camera is a massive dslr and takes twenty minutes to get out of the bag.

i should start carrying and old phone about and hold that up

>>>

All depends which police force/service you come under.
The police can take action here (sometimes) even though the pavement is very very wide and no obstruction is being caused to pedestrians and wheelchairs etc. Depending on the individual officer, Park with a wheel one inch over the line and you risk being ticketed. whereas other police will just walk by. At the present time they appear not to be interested, . Because of the wide width of the pavement some inconsiderate drives will double park causing pedestrians to squeeze by between the two cars causing bags buttons or zippers to scratch the paintwork but fortunately these incidents are rare.

This is something I feel fairly strongly about but there doesn't seem to be a solution. In police terms obstruction occurs if there is insufficient room for a pushchair to pass, but they are not interested in persuing cases saying it is the council's responsibility. To their credit the council have introduced new parking bays in some streets but they are totally inadequate. Our street is quite narrow and the turning areas down the bottom are always blocked by vehicles including a large transit and frequently all the bays are taken. At times cars park right across my entrance so I have to squeeze to get out of my own house... I would never ever park on the pavement myself and always find somewhere to park even if it needs a five minute walk, but of course everybody else insists on having to park within feet of their house.
Problem getting worse all the time and little seems to be done about it.

Private wheel clamping is illegal.

I will say that it was very tempting to vent my feelings on the matter but I was also thinking what's the point? Such behaviour would have been soundly called out a few years ago and I had a shaming notice stuck on my car for parking within 15 feet of a junction of two roads the year I passed my test 1995, now that same junction has cars parked all the way onto it almost all the time. But now people get angry and retaliate unreasonably for being called out on their crap behaviour so I just left it.

That's would be a good idea for those that way inclined, as it means they can't be CCTV'd deliberately damaging a stationary vehicle.

Personally, I've no time for people who park their cars and by so doing, block the pavement. It's selfish and arrogant.

Just wondered if any drivers have returned to let-down tyres??

As a wheelchair user it really annoys me! The only thing worse is when people don't pick up after their dogs!

Perhaps councils should do a better job of not allowing developers to build new estates with inadequate parking and narrow roads?

No, but I did return to my legally parked car to find I'd got a puncture. Spare wheel in the boot, but stupidly on my part, no jack. Fortunately some guy stopped and very kindly lent me his. I offered him a £20 note afterwards, but he refused to accept.

There are still some decent types around.

Be careful though

Woman parks on mans drive then spits on him when he complains

Another aspect is parking restrictions. Where I live they put double yellows along the major routes as commuters were parking and blocking busses. So people just parked where they can even if that is the pavement. This morning I had a new one. A John Lewis lorry had parked across my garage and gone off to deliver a fridge. I had no idea where the driver had gone, just had to wait for 20 minutes. Late for work and again lack of anywhere to pull up so he just left it where he could.

i think holding up the phone would largely represent a reduction in confrontation for me

New estates are the worst. They just put in what pavements they can get away with sometimes I think. With a driveway for each house but no consideration about where visitors to any of the houses should park!


Cant blame the residents. I have to make sure the handle of my wheelie bin is on the pavement, if the whole bin is on my drive and no part of it is on the pavement the binmen won't collect it! This has happened when we first moved here.


Nasty, I can imagine.

I get annoyed when people park on the green areas around my estate or on the pavements. There seems to be more cars about here these day, possibly because houses are more expensive and more people are living together ? We also have workers from the near by industrial estate parking here.

Things will only change if you complain to the relevant authority. The police may issue fines etc, or the council can put up signs or posts to stop people parking on public land like grass verges etc. It's not even difficult to get in touch these days, just send them an email. I emailed my council regarding some dodgy looking work on a tree and they got back to be by 10am next day.

While your initial point was fairly ridiculous, this point is a pretty good one. Round by me they have built an estate of mostly 4 or 5 bed houses but only given 2 parking spaces per house.

I'd have absolutely lost it. I hope you had a word.

Yes Locally to me the council made it so you had to park entirely on the pavement and gave out tickets to those half on half off. As a single pedestrian walking it's fine, but if you had a pushchair, wheelchair etc then you would have no chance getting down. It's the same on both sides of the street as well.

Very odd.

He should wrap it around their thick skulls and put a few of their windows through. Tits.