The ongoing parking on Cliff Road, which has been safety hazard to wheelchair and pushchair users for years, particularly on sunny days.
Shortly after 4pm on Sunday 14th August police were called to reports of a number of vehicles which were parked on the pavement on Cliff Road, Wilmslow, causing an obstruction to passing pedestrians.
Police attended and nine vehicles were given parking tickets, a further two vehicles were also issued with advisory notices,
Comments
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I hope that at some stage action will be taken at the Carrs car park on Styal road where at busy times some motorist park up the side of the entrance making it very unsafe for those entering or leaving.
Pavement parking is solely a police matter as the councils traffic wardens (Civil Enforcement Officers) do not have any powers to issue penalty notices for this offence. The government was reviewing to change this, but they seem to have quietly dropped the idea.
Therefore, you will need to contact the police for pavement parking issues. You can call 101 but the wait times to speak to someone have been long, so you are probably better off calling your local PCSO directly:
PCSO Morris (Wilmslow West) 07989 438370
PCSO Yates (Dean Row, Lacey Green, Styal) 07815 973722
PCSO Hails (Wilmslow East) 07769 235532
Unfortunately, while it is inconsiderate of people to park on residential roads and go off to the airport on holiday, it is not an offence if they have parked legally.
Cllr Mark Goldsmith
Residents of Wilmslow
Wilmslow West & Chorley
If there had been Cheshire East Council Civil Enforcement Officers (CEOs) on duty in Wilmslow on Sunday afternoon, then they could have issued a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) to all twelve vehicles on the pavement on Cliff Road. This is because they were all parked on a double yellow line and none of them were displaying a blue badge. They could also have issued about 15 PCNs to vehicles not complying with the parking regulations in the CEC car park next to the parish hall.
How do I know that there were no CEOs on duty on Sunday? Because the vehicle barrier on Grove Street by Barclays Bank was open all day, as it is almost every Sunday..
It is CEC's responsibility to enforce double yellow lines on the highway, and parking regulations in CEC car parks. So my question to you is: Why don't they seem to want to do this in Wilmslow on every Sunday?
I was responding to Mike’s question about pavement parking, so was not commenting on Cliff Road.
Cheshire East has a shortage of CEO’s and struggles to keep them because of the abuse they regularly receive while doing their job.
They are fitted with video recorders and we do prosecute people who cross the threshold for abuse but it remains a thankless task. Often they have to go round in pairs to ensure their safety, which halves the area and number of cars they can monitor.
Therefore, they do regularly patrol Cliff Road and the town centre when they are available.
Add to this regular coned sections both with and without traffic lights AND heavy delivery trucks manoeuvring.
It’s a shocker. There’s an opportunity here for daily fines, though I have no idea where the offenders would park. Perhaps a minibus from a car park in town would work?
Here’s what the West Midlands Police thinks - so why should it be any different round here?
https://west-midlands.police.uk/your-options/parking-yellow-lines
Paragraph 1:“Fines for parking on yellow lines are issued by, and are the responsibility of local authorities. The police will only issue tickets if a vehicle is obstructing the highway or posing a danger to others. If the parked vehicle is causing a highway obstruction it may become a police matter.”
Paragraph 4: “Waiting restrictions indicated by yellow lines apply to the road, the pavement and the verge.”
The vehicles were not obstructing the highway because they were not on it - just the pavement. I would suggest they were causing a danger to others because pedestrians were forced to use the road. Important to note there is no pavement on the other side of the road. Reference here to young mothers pushing buggies and mobility scooter users just to embellish the case against the vehicles.
I guess “local authorities’ means the CEO’s [traffic wardens] who will nab you for parking next to double yellows anywhere else in town so should do here. Incidentally the West Midlands Police in paragraph 4 explains that the yellow line jurisdiction extends either side of the lines and onto a pavement and verge [in fact as far as a boundary with private land]. So in this Cliff Road example the motorists who thought they were ok and only risking a “parking on the pavement” offence might just as well have been in the road for all the difference it makes.
I therefore think Mark Goldsmith is incorrect because the yellow line offence that has been committed here can still be dealt with [by the traffic wardens] in the same manner as they would anywhere else. Also Mark, parking on this pavement IS an offence because it is covered by the double yellow line conditions - which are primarily a council responsibility but also a police issue should they wish [or have the time - understandably?].
As usual this parking nonsense in our town is still on the Muppet ‘merry-go-round’ with nobody willing to sort it out. Remember the ‘highway obstruction’ in the recent past by the Coach & Four - that wasn’t an ‘obstruction’ - and how long that took to get sorted?
As Stuart Redgard observes, there seems to have been a missed opportunity here to collect financial penalties [money££££££] for the council coffers that dear old councillor Browne says are struggling at the moment, unless someone will explain that like speeding fines, such monies raised go direct to the government?
See Browne’s comment in Wilmslow.co.uk of 13th June 2022 under the topic “Four days of free parking”.
https://www.wilmslow.co.uk/news/article/22522/four-days-of-free-parking
“The council faces severe financial pressures – with increased demand for key services and significant cuts in funding over recent years.”
A statement that councillor Browne seems to have omitted [done a U-turn?] in the posting of 9th August 2022. I wonder what wizardry he has come up with to ease the financial pressures in such a short time?
https://www.wilmslow.co.uk/news/article/22647/three-days-of-free-parking-in-wilmslow
My comments were directed to Mike who asked about pavement parking, so they were not about Cliff Road.
Cheshire East can and does issue penalty notices for yellow line offenses and our Civil Enforcement Officers (traffic wardens) regularly ticket cars parked on Cliff Road. However, we struggle to recruit and maintain these staff because they are routinely abused by the public. We do equip them with body cameras and do prosecute people who overstep the mark (see: https://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/council_and_democracy/council_information/media_hub/media_releases/bodycam-footage-helps-convict-man-after-tirade-of-abuse-against-council-worker.aspx)
However, it is largely a thankless job and the officers often have to go around in pairs for their safety. This halves their effectiveness and doubles their cost. So, while they do regularly patrol the town and the car parks, they cannot be everywhere, all of the time.
The Cliff Road issue has not been resolved because the Cheshire East ward councillor (the last remaining Conservative one) has done nothing to fix it. All the actions taken so far to find a solution have originated from the town council or Residents of Wilmslow councillors (who have limited powers and budgets outside our own wards). The Lacey Green councillor is the ex-Head of Highways, so should know how the system works. He can use his £8,400 Cheshire East ward budget to instigate a solution eg installing bollards or can ask Cheshire East or Wilmslow Town Council to fund any additional cost. Unfortunately, none of this has happened and I share people’s frustrations at the lack of a solution. However, this is not a failing of Cheshire East Council, it is a failing of the Cheshire East councillor.
The new cycle lane between Handforth and Wilmslow may offer a permanent solution for Cliff Road, but this work has been delayed until 2023 because the government has delayed the funding. Therefore, this unfortunate saga looks set to go on.
Finally, David, the yellow lines by the Coach & Four took an age to get sorted because the previous Conservative councilors had done nothing to fix the problem. Despite regularly saying they were working on a solution, issuing press releases and having their photos taken on the road, when I was elected I found out they hadn't even started the yellow lining process. Cheshire East Highways didn't even know it was an issue! So the new RoW councillors had to initiate the process (which takes 18 months to complete, because Parlaiment says it has to take that long.) The yellow lines were then installed and the problem was fixed. That wasn't Cheshire East's fault, it was the Cheshire East councillors failing and the parallel with Cliff Road is clear.
Additionally David, there are 13 areas of nationally defined social-deprivation in Cheshire East and two of them are in the Wilmslow area. As I was often told by residents when canvassing, not everyone who lives in Wilmslow is a millionaire or a WAG. We have our share of those struggling too, so we are trying to do what we can to help them too.
Cheshire East can fund this small parking initiative because the Independent Group controls its finances and for the first time ever, introduced a balanced 5 year spending plan. Our prudent financing also avoided the post-Covid emergency cuts that many other councils needed too.
So, while parking does contribute to our funding, we have no intention of using motorists to prop up our finances. We are trying to bring shoppers back into the town centre, not deter them.
A highway can be either a carriage way, foot way (pavement) or a combination of both. Any vehicle obstructing a pavement is therefore obstucting the highway.
Users of the sports field park their cars on the pavement, blocking it for pedestrians. I have witnessed a woman with a pushchair having to walk in the (busy) road to pass the cars.
The irony is that there is a perfectly adequate, CE owned car park at Jim Evison that is kept permanently locked - presumably because the field has been used by Travellers in the past.
I was quoting from the West Midlands Police website link that I included in my comment - so I suggest you make this distinction clear to them - just in case the West Midlands Police Force is not fully aware already.
Let me know if they think differently.