Council’s ridiculous driver pavement clamp down fines does not help parents

There are so many roads we would like to point out to Bristol City Council’s attempt to ticket vehicles blocking the pavement for pedestrians crossing the road that we would be typing until Kingdom come.

In fact, we think the council’s crackdown does not go nearly far enough.

Taking up new powers introduced by the Department for Transport in 2008, the council will be ticketing vehicles parked across dropped kerbs on a corner or at a clearly marked crossing area.

They will not be ticketing where there is a legitimate reason to park, including delivery drivers, emergency services or waste collection.

Whereas only the idiots would complain about emergency services parking illegally, or collecting their rubbish, letting delivery lorries park where and when they like is ridiculous.

Perhaps if the Department for Transport tried to push a pram up busy Sandy Park Road this morning and found they had to walk out into traffic to avoid large delivery lorries parked across the entire pavement they might change their mind.

Perhaps if the Department for Transport made an attempt to navigate through the back streets of Bedminster with a buggy or toddler, trying to get past cars parked over the entire pavement, a standard practice across Bristol these days, then they may also find themselves wheeling buggies over car roofs to avoid inept drivers on the road.

The new powers to help pedestrians is absolute drivel and does not even begin to tackle the problem.

Parking on dropped kerbs is just a tiny drop in ocean for parents, the disabled or other pavements users.

Stupidly placed ‘street furniture’ and morons parking illegally wherever they want and simply getting away with it all contributes to pram problems.

Cabinet Member for Transport and Sustainability, Councillor Jon Roger’s quote in all this is: “Dropped kerbs are there for a purpose – to help pedestrians safely cross our roads. This is especially true for the elderly, disabled or parents with prams who rely even more on them for safe crossing. It can therefore be very frustrating to find a car parked across them leaving the pedestrian no choice but to cross off a higher kerb.”

Councillor Jon Rogers doesn’t get that parents can’t even get to the dropped kerbs at the end of roads because of inconsiderate parkers and delivery drivers blocking the entire length of road to begin with.