Guide Dogs renews call for national law to end pavement parking

Helen Brewis-Levie with her guide dog Sunny

Helen Brewis-Levie with her guide dog Sunny

Vehicles obstructing pathways cause huge difficulties for pedestrians, particularly people with sight loss, wheelchair users and people with prams. 

People with a vision impairment are often forced to step into the road into oncoming traffic they cannot see, just to get round a parked car. 

This is why Guide Dogs is continuing its fight to make pavements safer for people with a vision impairment. The charity is calling on the UK government to act now and make pavements safe for all.

The Department for Transport has yet to publish the findings of its 2020 consultation on changes to the law. 

Guide Dogs wants to see the government introduce a national law to tackle pavement parking. Currently, London and Scotland are the only parts of the UK where pavement parking restrictions exist. 

New research conducted by YouGov on behalf of Guide Dogs showed that councillors are in favour of tougher action. In areas where there is not a clear law:

• 74% of councillors support the call to introduce powers to tackle pavement parking.
• More than 8 in 10 (84%) say pavement parking creates safety risks for pedestrians in their area.
• Almost half (45%) believe existing methods are too costly, while 51% think they are too impractical to use.

Eleanor Briggs, head of policy, public affairs and campaigns at Guide Dogs, said: “Local leaders are clear: pavement parking is unsafe, the current system just isn’t working across most of the country, and a clear law is needed to make sure everyone can travel down their streets safely, particularly people with sight loss.”

Guide dog owner Helen Brewis-Levie knows firsthand the dangers pavement parking creates but her life has changed since moving to Scotland where pavement parking restrictions are being rolled out. 

“Pavement parking is not simply a matter of ‘bad parking’. It is a daily danger to blind people across the UK. I’ve been forced into traffic, verbally abused and have even broken my wrist after a fall getting past a car on the pavement.

“In Scotland, pavements belong to people again, not vehicles. It’s given me freedom, independence and confidence. Scotland has shown that it works. Now the rest of the UK must follow.”