The Welsh Government plans to bring in legislation to allow the existing offence of obstruction to be used to tackle pavement parking, having apparently given up on the ‘frustratingly slow’ process of waiting for Westminster to change the law.
In a statement to the Senedd, deputy minister for climate change Lee Waters pointed out that the devolved administration had accepted all 10 recommendations made in a report from the Wales Pavement Parking Taskforce.
It had also ‘committed to work with stakeholders to further develop and refine the proposal to give local authorities the powers to tackle pavement parking by introducing subordinate legislation to allow civil enforcement’.
He added that progress had however been ‘frustratingly slow’, noting that the Welsh Government had needed the UK Government to amend existing regulations on obstruction of the road – ‘expressly separating out obstruction of the pavement’.
Mr Waters said the UK Government had committed to this but had not yet secured parliamentary time to take this forward, ‘nor is time likely to be found in the foreseeable future’.
He added that he had reconvened the taskforce and asked them to explore other ways of achieving the Welsh Government’s policy aims.
It provided an addendum to report recommending that using the existing offence of obstruction of the road was the best way forward and could deliver additional benefits, allowing local authorities in Wales to deal with both pavement parking and obstruction by other parked vehicles.
Mr Waters said: ‘I have accepted this recommendation and now propose to consult widely prior with a view to introducing the necessary legislation by the end of 2023.’
Speaking to Highways in October, Mark Kemp, president of local directors’ body ADEPT, noted that it had been two years since the Department for Transport’s consultation on pavement parking had closed, with no further progress.
