Pavement parking

As a throw-away remark in reply to Dan H I mentioned that I'd become more sensitive to reports of police doing things without quoting the authority under which they act. I've just realised I haven't quite mentioned why.

It's really all to do with a letter published in the Shuttle from Inspector Paul Crowley entitled On the beat regarding courtesy when driving and under-18's drinking alcohol. My comments along with others' can be seen, but it just highlighted to me how easily you can get away with stating X is illegal and leave it at that.

To summarise the points I made there Inspector Crowley made five assertions

1) Under 18s cannot legally purchase alcohol (in public?)
2) Under 18s cannot legally drink alcohol in public
3) Purchase of alcohol for under-18s is illegal
4) Parking on pavements can cause obstruction which is illegal
5) Driving over pavements is illegal

Two of those are incorrect; do you know which ones?

It's two and five. Alcohol can be confiscated from under-18s, but the act of drinking it is not itself illegal - Confiscation of Alcohol (Young Persons) Act 1997. Driving over pavements is not illegal if you are doing so to park on land within 15 yards of a road - Road Traffic Act 1988 s34. For anyone saying "Ah but what about Alcohol Restriction Zones, don't they make drinking in public illegal?" no they don't they just extend the confiscation of alcohol to everyone not just under-18s. Of course if you refuse to hand it over or discard it then you're in breach of the order and they can arrest you, but that's still not for drinking.

So as an addendum to "On the Beat" the Shuttle has received another letter from a Michael Dimbylow entitled Ways to Overcome the selfish minority. In the first paragraph he makes the assertion that "parking on verges and grass is also illegal.". And once again no attempt is made to back this up. Possibly because it may be wrong.

Why am I hesitant - because it's possible that the council have implemented a by-law prohibiting it. Now if I could obtain a list of all by-laws applicable I could check - anyone care to point me in the right direction? Anyway assuming that no such by-law is in place once again this is wrong.

There are no prohibitions to parking on pavements, verges or grass in and of itself. However doing so may incur an offence. For those going huh the answer lies in a few points. Firstly to park on the grass or pavement you might damage the grass or kerb and that's criminal damage; or you might be causing a danger or obstruction to other users by parking there. Finally what most people don't realise is that under case law the "public highway" is defined as from the border of private land to the opposite border and that any waiting restrictions painted on the road apply to the public highway. So that includes any pavements verges etc. So even if you're not parked directly on the road that has the double yellow markings they still apply to the pavement so expect a PCN.

As I say in the comment this all might seem pedantic, but it's an important distinction and even more importantly stops others from stating the all-encompassing "That's illegal!" without having to back that statement up.

[Update - for my own, and I suppose anyone else's, future reference it appears parking 'not on the carriageway' gets listed as a by-law. I suppose I should use "bye-law" as that's how it's spelt in legislation, but it just seems wrong. Also worth looking at section 4 of the Traffic Management Act which also introduced me to the Essex Act 1987 - yep an entire act that just applies to Essex how pathetic a use of legislation.]

[Update 2: Hah is it a bye-law or just part of the Civil Parking Enforcement? Sounds petty but if it's a bye-law breaking it is illegal; if it's not it's just actionable. As a definition I hold that an action against criminal law is illegal; against civil law - actionable.]