‘No parking’ order for new Sheffield pedestrian-friendly city centre junctions rejected as unfair

Members of Sheffield City Council’s waste and street scene policy committee (February 14) were unhappy about introducing no parking rules related to road junctions where there is tactile surfacing on the crossing point for pedestrians.

Division Lane in the city centre was given as an example. A picture in the report to the committee showed a van parked on the wide area of tactile surfacing leading up to a junction, with double yellow lines running in front of the area along the road surface, at right angles to where the van was parked.

Council officers wanted to introduce special enforcement areas for the tactile surfacing at crossing points for pedestrians to prevent potentially hazardous parking near junctions. The yellow lines on Division Lane do not allow for parking to be enforced on the tactile paved area, so a penalty notice could not be issued, councillors heard.

Ben Brailsford, assistant director for street scene services, said that council highways engineers are designing junctions in the city centre to make them more friendly to pedestrians and ‘active travel’ – cycling or wheeling.

Coun Otten asked if a warning could be given for a first offence, such as happens for a new bus gate. Mr Brailsford said that would happen and anyone who appealed against a penalty charge notice for a first offence would probably get the benefit of the doubt.

Appeal

“I’m rather concerned that we’re proposing to issue penalties for an offence that we expect to concede at appeal,” said Coun Otten. He said it was approaching maladministration.

Coun Sue Alston said: “If it’s not an offence in the Highway Code or any other legal document, how are we making it an offence? That’s what I really don’t understand.”

Mr Brailsford said it was an offence under the Traffic Management Act 2004 but not a well-known one because these are new types of road junctions. He said that the council would need to create a special enforcement area.

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Coun Christine Gilligan Kubo said she was happy to support it but said the council should bring in yellow lines if the measure wasn’t working as a deterrent to parking.

Mr Brailsford responded: “At the moment we’re in a situation where we can’t enforce and we don’t want to see a spate of people using that loophole to start blocking and making junctions unsafe for the city but we do recognise that is not the ideal design and we do want to make sure that we are reviewing that and putting the most appropriate design forward in future.”

Coun Otten asked: “Wouldn’t it be better just to put yellow lines where people can’t park – wouldn’t that be clearer for everyone, rather than changing the policy?

Sensible

“Looking at the picture, we’re told that the thing that looks like a pavement is part of the road, in which case there are yellow lines painted across a junction. What do those yellow lines even mean, painted across a junction like that?

“If something comes into that, doesn’t realise the pavement is road, stops on the yellow lines to unload, which they’re entitled to do, they’re actually blocking a road.

“If we turn up and fine them for blocking a road and try and penalise them for that, they’d say ‘no, no, no, I’m just unloading on the yellow lines’, wouldn’t they?

“Why is this junction marked up like this, wouldn’t it be better to give it sensible markings than change our policy?”

Mr Brailsford said that redesigning and planning schemes takes time. “We need to be aware that if we don’t change the policy, we won’t be able to enforce on actions like that.”

Coun Otten said: “I am minded to say that it is not good enough for the council to say because we haven’t yet got round to marking up this junction in a sensible way, we therefore want to start enforcing against it, marked up badly.

Consultation

“I’m inclined not to approve this recommendation at this point.”

Coun Mark Rusling asked how long it would take to get yellow lines. Mr Brailsford said issuing a new traffic regulation order would take at least six months because of the need to run consultation on the proposal.

Coun Otten said that the council tries to do things in a way that is fair and clear so that people understand. “I think we’ve got here an unfortunate consequence of a separate initiative to try and improve the streetscape to enhance the experience for pedestrians.”

He added: “In doing so, we seem to have created this minefield of unclarity around the parking restrictions. I don’t think going gung-ho with enforcement is a solution to that.

“I think we have to be clear to motorists what they can and can’t do before we start enforcing it. Expecting people to appeal is not a solution, it’s a sign we’ve done things wrong in the first place.”

Coun Peter Gilbert said: “It’s new to us, so we’re all getting used to it, but we’re moving to the city being a pedestrian-friendly city. If we don’t act at the beginning to make sure that enforcement is taken, then very quickly these new schemes will fail across the city because people will get used to parking on them when they shouldn’t.”

Coun Rusling argued that making things clear to drivers is the best way to protect pedestrians and saw enforcement as “a very blunt instrument”.

Councillors voted to reject the proposal but Green Party members Couns Gilligan Kubo and Gilbert voted in favour.