Barricades installed on Sheffield city centre street to stop 'selfish' motorists from pavement parking

Coun Bob Johnson, Cabinet member for transport, took drastic action by putting blockades on Sheaf Street after cars repeatedly blocked the footpath.

The bollards - which read ‘Temporary measure, cracking down on selfish parking’ - have been carefully placed to allow pedestrians, cyclists and people with prams and wheelchairs to easily pass by.

They will remain in place for three weeks while the council completes a traffic regulation order. Once that order is in place, traffic wardens will have the power to ticket cars.

Coun Johnson has warned there are at least a dozen other hot spots in the city centre which will be barricaded next.

He said: “Unless we have a traffic regulation order in place, we can’t do anything. We have to rely on the police and they are obviously busy.

“These experimental traffic regulation orders are new government legislation which allow us to block the pavement until orders are in place.

“This is the start of a city centre wide pavement parking ban and we’ll be making several orders over the next few weeks.”

Coun Johnson said he started with Sheaf Street after receiving a number of complaints about the area.

“They’re not just parking on the pavement but deliberately parking on the cycle path. They have gone out of their way to make an obstruction.

“We have politely asked half a dozen times not to block the pavement but they have refused to cooperate so it left me no choice.

“We have a number of other streets where drivers continually park where they shouldn’t, including on pelican crossings, cycle paths and double yellow lines so we will be moving these blocks around the city centre.

“The barricades have caught people’s attention and I haven’t had any objections so far. They are ugly but they are temporary and people appreciate them.”

He said motorists who park on yellow zig-zag lines near schools would be the next enforcement push with mobile cameras.