BEWARE - ANOTHER COUNCILLOR WEARING BLINKERS!

According to a snippet in this week’s Tameside Advertiser it would seem that Town Hall Chiefs, led by the indefatigable Cllr Peter Robinson (New Chair of the Councils Enforcement Co-ordination Panel) will be working with the police to apply Rule 218 of the Highway Code regarding parking on pavements!

In his opening gambit he declares, “Offenders could be fined or prevented from parking by the introduction of ‘high kerbs’ or ‘bollards’ in some of the boroughs hot spots!”

Now this is again very confusing because recently the government has set about encouraging local authorities to take responsibility for parking away from the police. This is known as decriminalisation because parking offences are civil, rather than criminal!

Even the Department for Transport is reluctant to create a new law. It has stated that: “There is currently no national legislation banning the parking of all vehicles on the pavement, due to the wide range of circumstances and locations where pavement parking occurs.

Now, admittedly Vehicles parked on pavements can create a hazard:

They can be a hazard to pedestrians by causing an obstruction that may result in them having to step off the pavement into the roadway, thus putting them in danger.

Vehicles parked on pavements obviously restrict the width of the pavement and makes life difficult for someone with a pushchair or wheelchair to pass safely - again this person may have to enter the roadway to avoid the obstruction.

It also causes damage to the pavement - broken flags, potholes, etc. and creates serious problems for blind, disabled and older people.

In every town in the land there are some very inconsiderate drivers who only think of their own convenience and disregard other people problems, but some drivers have problems too. Many of Tameside’s town’s have very narrow streets (not to mention the villages) and pretty narrow roads and when there is parking on both sides, the space that is left can be minimal.
                                                                                                                                                                  Ask anyone who has had their wing mirrors, costing in excess of £100, knocked off can make one want to put the wheels just on the pavement to try and minimize damage. Also, so many large vans making deliveries to shops and private houses just increase the problem.

However, instead of imposing even more restrictions on visitors and much needed shoppers, it would have been better if he had set his mind to find ways to accommodate increasing numbers to our towns, by announcing innovative plans; like the building of an iconic Car Towers similar to those in German cities; introduce night time only deliveries to our towns, in order to take large vehicles off our crowded daytime streets or introduce workable borough wide Park & Ride systems; design one way traffic management schemes to allow adequate on street parking, or introduce hundreds of bike racks to send out a message that non-motorised traffic is valued just as highly as motor vehicles.

…. And whilst he’s got thinking hat on, require new house builders to design properties with off road parking for at least two vehicles each; then I’d have been impressed, but predictably, no!

His first and only thought is to fine the motorist and gather in more money from what are classed as legitimate actions for the council to waste on vanity projects like turning Hyde Market into a desert!

However, before the dogged councillor gives the ‘green light’ to the boroughs overzealous Traffic Wardens to go merrily writing up parking tickets; purely as a way to screw more revenue from motorists, who are, after all only taking the councils advice and attempting to ‘shop locally’ it might be a good idea for the Town Hall Chiefs, the councillors and the happy-snappy ticket Wardens to watch, a few episodes of “Call the Council” and pay close attention the some of their own council heroes parking on the boroughs pavements

They will see people like Brian Whelan, Phil Rodgers and Bev Hursthouse who have all been featured on our television screens, flagrantly parking with two wheels on the pavements.

So, until the intrepid councillor and his crew publicly slaps a £100 parking fine on these everyday heroes, we must all consider ourselves temporally immune to this latest example of ‘highway robbery’ – Unless, of course there is one rule for them and another one for us?