To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what legislation governs the illegal parking of vehicles partly or wholly on pavements; what the maximum penalty is for committing such an offence; and if he will make a statement.
There is no uniform national provision which prohibits pavement parking.
The parking of heavy goods vehicles over 7·5 tonnes gross weight on the pavement, except when necessary for loading or unloading is an offence under section 19 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 and is subject to a standard fixed penalty notice—£16—or a maximum level 3 fine. London and a few provincial cities have taken equivalent local Act powers to extend this offence to other vehicles.
The latent power in paragraph 22 of schedule 2 to the Road Traffic (Consequential Provisions) Act 1988 which, if commenced, would introduce a new national offence of parking a vehicle, other than a heavy goods vehicle, on the verge of an urban road, or on the footway or on any land situated between two carriageways on an urban road is being repealed by the Road Traffic Bill.
I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given to the hon. Member for Bradford, South (Mr. Cryer) on 11 December 1990, at column 344.