The Department for Transport (DfT) has been considering putting a UK-wide end to pavement parking, bringing the rest of the nation into line with the capital.

Pavement parking creates danger for many people including the blind and partially sighted, wheelchair users, the elderly and mothers with prams.

As most London drivers should already know, it has been law in the capital since 1974 that drivers 'must not park partially or wholly on the pavement in London and should not do so elsewhere unless signs permit it'. (Highway Code rule 244).  You can get a fine for parking on the pavement in other parts of the UK, but it's less set in stone.

Guide Dogs has long campaigned for pavement parking to be made illegal in the UK and its research suggests that almost half of UK drivers understand or consider the dangers of parking on the pavement, yet do so anyway. This has suggested that people are openly admitting to creating danger yet are choosing to ignore it. 

The RAC has recommended that the public uses 'common sense'. They say, if you are parking along a narrow road, where parking wholly on the road would stop other cars, and particularly emergency vehicles, from getting through, then it is a sensible option to park partially on a pavement, providing there are no parking restrictions and providing you are not blocking a wheelchair user or pram from using the pavement. If there are restrictions, or your parking would cause wheelchair users or people with prams to have to walk into the road, then you should find somewhere else to park.  

The general consensus is, therefore, that pavements are for people, not vehicles. But perhaps this issue isn't as straightforward to resolve as meets the eye, which is why the DfT has stalled for 40 years on a national ban since imposing the restrictions in London. After all, where would residents of narrow streets park if there are no off-street spaces available?