I have seen several discussions on NextDoor regarding pavement parking on Higher Drive, and there seemed to be some confusion as to whether it was permitted or not. Some residents believe that parking with 2 wheels on the pavement is permitted on Higher Drive, in contravention of the general situation on pavement parking in London, where it has been banned since 1974, except for where it is explicitly permitted. Some people have reported cars parking on the pavement and been frustrated that no action has been taken.
Government ran a consultation in 2020 on Pavement parking: options for change and it is still considering the 15,000 responses received.
I’ve been in contact with Parking Team and Parking Design Team at the council to get a definitive view of the situation; pavement parking on Higher Drive is permitted. Officers have confirmed that enforcement of footway parking is currently suspended for the whole of Higher Drive. This means that parking officers are currently unable to issue any parking fines to any vehicles that may be parked on the footway no matter how much space they are taking up. This situation is pending a consultation on a formal scheme with parking bays indicating how far to park on the footway and associated signing with the footway parking symbol and the wording ‘’In marked bays”
These sorts of markings and signs would resolve the current situation (by allowing a minimum of 1.2m width for pedestrians) assuming that residents are in favour of such an arrangement.
However, unfortunately there are around 140 similar roads in Croydon that also need consultation on potential footway parking schemes and there are also around an additional 160 roads with formal footway parking, but with poor signage. Currently the council does not have resources available to carry out this work and is unable to provide an estimate when this is likely to be, bearing in mind the number of other schemes such as disabled bays, yellow line requests and controlled parking schemes that it is trying to deal with. However, Higher Drive has now been flagged on the work programme for when there are resources so that it is one of the earlier roads to tackle.
It is possible residents may be in favour of removing the footway parking arrangements in which case the road can be removed from the parking suspension list and enforcement would resume. Normally the council would design a potential scheme with a drawing showing where it would mark parking bays before consulting residents so that they are aware of where we consider such parking can take place.
So, until such a time as the review has been completed and either a formal scheme is implemented or the request rejected, officers are unable to enforce the footway parking.
With all of the new developments along Higher Drive, the road has changed dramatically over the last few years. As well as builder and construction vehicles, there are now many more residents on the road than ever before, and it is leading to a lot of congestion.
I think that drivers need to be sensible and thoughtful. There are parts of the roads that could support pavement parking; where the pavements are wide enough not to force pedestrians onto the road or create challenges for people with vision issues. Pavement parking at these places would also open up the carriageway so that the traffic can slow. But please do think of other people. This sort of parking is inconsiderate and dangerous.
