Holyrood committee hails ‘positive’ pavement parking ban

The Footway Parking and Double Parking (Scotland) Bill, a members’ bill introduced by Sandra White MSP, proposes to make it illegal to park on pavements (known in the bill as footways).

Its aim is to make pavements safer and stop pedestrians – especially those with mobility or visual impairments, or with pushchairs – being forced onto the road to avoid parked cars.

In its report, the committee noted that, whilst the bill could be the basis for strengthening the law, there are still questions around how this would work in practice.

Committee convener, Kevin Stewart MSP said: “For those affected by obstructive parking on pavements, it can be a serious problem. We were overwhelmed by the number of comments we received from members of the public on this issue. We heard from wheelchair users, people with visual impairments and young families with prams about the very real impact this can have on their day to day lives.

“The bill before us is a positive step in addressing this issue. However, there is much more detail needed in order to address how this would work in practice. We believe more thought needs to be given to ensure the bill would be enforced consistently across Scotland. We also believe further consideration needs to be given to how much the bill would cost to implement and enforce.

“Clearly pavement parking is not always obstructive and so we welcome the flexibility the bill provides for local authorities to exempt some areas. We would hope local authorities would use a common sense approach to identifying these exempt areas.”