SECTION 184 HIGHWAYS ACT 1980- DRIVING OVER A FOOTWAY .

[Who me ?]

Friends /Romans/ legal gents, lend me your ears. Recently a few of us locally have received a letter ,where it's ALLEGED that we drive over pavement ,not constructed to allow vehicles to cross, and the above act is quoted. I've had a visit from our local county Councillor, where her reasoning was that unless unless my car parked on pavement prevented access, where a passer by ( eg a pram etc) had to move onto the road , then no breach of law existed.
Can ANY of our learned friends comment on this and give Law chapter & verse on the allegations made by our local highways department ,that an offense exists.

[Who me ?]

Correct, RD. Road is extremely narrow, as housed were built circa 1938, and there's rumours of WW2 GERMAN POW building the road . As a result of "parking wars" in another part of the road, those of us who converted our front garden into parking spaces and gave up at the shock of the cost of a "properly constructed vehicle access over the footway" have recieved correspondence alleging to the "illegal crossing of a footpath without a properly constructed access" and violation of section 184 has been quoted.I've tried to get a disabled space to be told that road is too narrow
For years , a few residents have been trying to get the County to reduce the pavement width to provide parking for vehicles so that EV can pass. With the County getting nasty, I've asked my County Councillor to help. Her interpretation of the above act is that it only applies if I park wholly on the pavement and block it. My question is simply, if legal gents can help- WHAT DOES THIS SECTION SAY.

[Who me ?]

Zombie said:

S184 relates to crossing a footway, rather than parking on it.

When you park on the footway, you're obstructing the highway, which unless there are restrictions in place, is a police matter and not a 184 issue.

If you're crossing over an un-lowered section of footway to gain access to your property, then that is an offence under Section 184 of the Highways Act and you can be fined for it by the Highway Authority rather than the police through legal proceedings.

However, you have to be proven to be doing it habitually, in a motor propelled vehicle and last time I checked, the fine itself was 20 quid.

But, as has been pointed out, it's not wise to continue if the LA is pressing the matter.

Bollards would be one way of dealing with, I guess and not beyond the realm of unusual.

Part of the lowering of the footway also involves digging it out and strengthening it to take the weight of a vehicle. LA's keep a record of works like this, if they can demonstrate it's NOT been strengthened and damage results to the services underneath, like water, elec supplies or BT Fibre, then they will point the Stat in your direction and you will be liable for the cost of any resulting damage (Google Street View is also rather handy as an evidence base). You really don't want to be paying for anything BTish, IME they don't get out of bed for less than 20k

- I'm a Highway Engineer for a LA. My Department deals with S184s...

Edited by Zombie on Friday 22 June 02:03

Thanks, Zombie- rather makes our "learned" county councillor look like she's talking out of rear ,then, as she was of opinion that unless pavement was obstructed and only then ,that it was a Plice matter.