Dropped kurb

[DerbyBorn]

My daughter's neighbour is having the front garden block paved or concreted. However this neighbour doesn't have a dropped kurb - in fact there are a couple of concrete bollards on the verge in front of the garden. We are worried that the neighbour might try to access their front garden via my daughter's dropped kurb. Would this be allowed? We have bcome accustomed to visiting and leaving our car over the end of my daughter's drive. Is there a regulation which requires a drive access to have its own dropped kurb and drive over the grass verge?

[Owain]

If the car mounts the pavement at your daughter's kerb, drives along the pavement, then enters the neighbour's drive, then the 'driving along the pavement' bit is illegal

Highway Code:

145 You MUST NOT drive on or over a pavement, footpath or bridleway except to gain lawful access to property, or in the case of an emergency. [Laws HA 1835 sect 72 & RTA 1988 sect 34]

The access to the neighbour's property would not be lawful because your neighbour does not have a dropped kerb and therefore does not have permission from the council to drive across the pavement or create/use a vehicular access to the council's road at that point.

(Note also that you do not have a right to park your vehicle so that it protrudes onto the pavement or verge.)

I Am Not A Lawyer.

Owain

[Frank Erskine]

In a few streets around here parking on the pavement seems to be almost 'de rigeur'. My street isn't too bad since there's a grass verge (on 'our' side!) with appropriate hard-standing bits, as well as our own drives..

The local authority seems to have no concern about this, even though paving slabs regularly crack up near to the worst offenders. The police couldn't give a toss either.

I do try, when walking my dog, to ensure that wing mirrors of the consistent offenders are appropriately knocked askew - after all "it's bound to happen if you park on the pavement."

[Graham.]

Perhaps it's like the streets round here? One or more cars per house, parking permitted on both sides of the road, but insufficient roadwidth for a large vehicle, a fire appliance perhaps, to pass unless the cars put two wheels on the kerb. Illegal, yes, and also responsible IMHO.

[Matty F]

I don't know about the UK but in my country if you wish to drive over the footpath, that needs to be reinforced because the service pipes underneath may be damaged. A Council permit is required for the job, and there are firms that specialise in laying a concrete pad and dropping the kerb.

[Nightjar]

insufficient

cars put two

Unless there are waiting restrictions on that section of highway, which will apply equally to roadway and pavement, it is not illegal to park on the pavement. It is illegal to drive on the pavement to get into or out of that position, but the Police can only do something about that if the driver is actually caught in the process of driving on the pavement. The fact that the car is on the pavemnt is not sufficient proof that it was driven there: As a student I helped to lift a Mini onto the pavement, where it ended up parked neatly between two trees.

Colin Bignell

[John Rumm]

There are degrees of grey here which need to be taken into account IMHO. In circumstances where the road is narrow with limited parking space for all the vehicles, and there is a danger of causing an accident, or restricting the passage of an emergency vehicle unless you stick a couple of wheels onto the kerb, then doing so seems the appropriate and sensible thing to do. After all, 4mph impact with a careless or poor sighted pedestrian is likely to result is less injury risk than a 40mph impact with a moving vehicle.

Where the pavement parking is unnecessary, and/or excessive - i.e. a significant width of pavement is obstructed and its difficult or impossible for pushchairs etc to pass then that is not acceptable.

Damaging wing mirrors etc, one might argue is justifiable (and indeed likely anyway) in the second case. In the former case then it is obviously malicious damage, and one could expect a "robust" response from said vehicle's owners.

[Invisible Man]

For the sake of completeness I would comment that in Greater London it is an offence to park any wheels on the pavement subject to a few exceptions. Don't remember ever lifting any cars anywhere interesting. Did once remove the windscreen of a friends company car when he left it in an underground car park at Hyde Park. We helped him put it back but I forget how many times his company called people out to stop the sudden unexplained leak.

[Man at B&Q]

When pushing our kids in pushchairs and then later when pushing my father in a wheelchair I always went out of my way (even walking in a busy main road) to avoid scratching, dinging or otherwise harming inconsiderately parked vehicles that were blocking the pavement. Or maybe I didn't, accidents can happen, after all :-)

MBQ

[Man at B&Q]

Not round here, they don't.

MBQ

[Bob Eager]

Sorry, that's pathetic! .-)

[Bob Eager]

Sorry, it wrapped:

[Tim Downie]

I think a council permit is required here too but the difference in my neck of the wood is that the kerb just gets dropped (without reinforcement). I guess they reckon that most of the time, reinforcement isn't necessary.

Tim

[Huge]

Excellent. Not often I enjoy something in the Daily Bile.

This is a good read along similar lines;

[Bob Eager]

It appears in several places but they have a nice diagram...!

[Bob Eager]

"History of UNIX" lecture...! But thanks, more there than I found...

[DerbyBorn]

Many thanks. I am watching with interest - I note the contractors have taken down a section of the neighbour's fence - possibly to enable a bit of corner cutting across my daughter's already paved front garden. I presume that if I happen to block my daughter's dropped kurb when I visit then the neighbour has no legitimate right to complain if it block their car in?

[Martin Bonner]

I believe it almost certainly /is/ sufficient evidence in the absence of any rebutting evidence. The real problem is that the car being on the pavement is not evidence of *who* drove it there.

[Martin Bonner]

There's absolutely nothing to stop your daughter putting up a fence on the border of her land - effectively replacing the one the neighbours have taken down.

Can I suggest she should talk to the neighbour? Disputes with neighbours can get really nasty, really quickly.

[DavidM]

Sniped

My understanding was that it is illegal to park against a dropped kerb, even if it's your own (or opposite a dropped kerb if in doing so you obstruct access to it)! Not sure if it's just a local byelaw in some areas or more general. Anyone clarify?