A charity for visually impaired people has urged the Government to do more to crack down on pavement parking.
The Government consulted on options to tackle pavement parking in 2020, and received over 15,000 responses.
However, the Guide Dogs charity said that there had been ‘no progress’ on this issue and called for the introduction of tighter national restrictions.
New research conducted by YouGov on behalf of Guide Dogs found that only one in five (22%) councillors believe their current powers to tackle pavement parking were sufficient and four in 10 say that residents contact them at least once a month about pavement parking.
The polling also found the majority (95%) of councillors in England said pavement parking created a safety risk for pedestrians with a vision impairment, with 70% admitting pavement parking is a problem in their area.
Eleanor Briggs, head of policy, public affairs and campaigns at Guide Dogs, said: ‘The message from the public and local councillors is clear; our streets are not safe because of cars blocking pavements. The Government need to act now as local councils don’t have the powers they need.
‘Parking on pavements is a nuisance for everyone, but potentially dangerous if you are a wheelchair user forced onto the road, pushing a child in a buggy or have sight loss and can’t see traffic coming towards you.’
This article first appeared on localgov.co.uk.
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