Government to expand council powers on pavement parking
13th January 2026
On 9th January, the government announced its long-awaited response to the 2020 consultation on options to address pavement parking, and that it will implement certain recommendations that give local authorities greater enforcement powers. In particular, this will include powers to enforce against unnecessary obstruction of the pavement.
These reflect our own policy proposals that we outlined in our Street Transformation Execution Plan or STEP report last year. Funded by the National Centre for Accessible Transport (ncat), we developed a blueprint for 12 actionable recommendations to improve street access, working with Coventry City Council, businesses and a local co-production panel; the Disability Equality Action Partnership (DEAP); click here to read our full report.
92% of the 156 local authorities who responded to the Government’s consultation felt that pavement parking was a problem in their area, alongside 83% of individuals (Department for Transport, 2026). Yet despite this, our research found that councils have limited powers to address the issue, with many such relevant powers falling under the police.
The initial Dft consultation looked to identify views on three areas and “options for change” to address the issue:
Improve the Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) process where local authorities can set enforceable rules on pavement parking on specific streets.
Enable local authorities to enforce against ‘unnecessary obstruction’ of the pavement.
Nationwide ban on pavement parking with local authorities able to set exemptions.
Our research highlighted that the TRO system is a costly and administratively burdensome way to effect change, applying to a few small streets at a time, and we recommended efforts to streamline this process should be encouraged.
Most importantly, as identified in the initial consultation and our work, the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 already makes unnecessary obstruction of the road a criminal offence. By distinguishing clearly between “pavement” and the “road”, and “adding pavements to the list of contraventions” under Schedule 7 Paragraph 4(2) of the Traffic Management Act 2004, civil enforcement officers would gain the power to issue penalty charge notices for vehicles unnecessarily obstructing pavements (Department for Transport, 2023). This would apply to nearly all (96%) of local authorities in England that have Civil Parking Enforcement (CPE) powers. This could be one option that the Government explores to deliver this legislative change in practice and to shift powers back to local authorities.
We also recognise that the concept of “unnecessary obstruction” raises definitional challenges. While obstruction itself can be clearly defined, by specifying a minimum clear width of 1.5m between a vehicle and the back edge of the pavement for instance, assessing whether an obstruction is “unnecessary” may prove more challenging in practice. We therefore equally recommend the Department for Transport’s (2023) initial view that “guidance would be needed to clarify the definition …in order to prevent inappropriate and inconsistent enforcement.”
Finally, it is worth noting that whilst 56% of local authorities favoured tackling unnecessary obstruction, option 3, banning pavement parking, also had support except due to costs. We would therefore encourage the Government to also adopt our recommendation for an £8M Department for Transport (DfT) fund to help up to 10 local authorities develop plans on making pavement parking the exception, rather than the default, covering the costs of reviewing exception zones and the need for enforcement that will be required from such a ban. Our research with local disabled people in Coventry and the DEAP highlighted that the Government should not fall behind instances of best practices, such as in London where pavement parking has been banned since 1974, and where Scotland, both Glasgow and Edinburgh have taken steps to enforce a recent nationwide ban.
References
Department for Transport (2023). Pavement Parking: Options for Change.” Consultationhttps://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/managing-pavement-parking/pavement-parking-options-for-change
Department for Transport (2026). Government Response to the “Pavement Parking: Options for Change” Consultation. London: Department for Transport, January 2026. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69492d383022cdf03a0eb870/pavement-parking-consultation-government-response.pdf