A RESIDENT has hit out at the dangers posed by motorists parking on pavements. The photograph above was taken recently by a resident who lives on Fishponds Road, Hitchin. It shows an elderly pedestrian walking back onto the pavement after having been forc

A RESIDENT has hit out at the dangers posed by motorists parking on pavements.

The photograph above was taken recently by a resident who lives on Fishponds Road, Hitchin.

It shows an elderly pedestrian walking back onto the pavement after having been forced on the road in order to get around the car.

The photographer, who wishes to remain anonymous, said this was one of many such instances of cars blocking pathways on the street.

The resident said: "It seems to be happening continuously. The danger being, of course, that cars parked across pavements are forcing people into the road very close to a roundabout.

"It certainly is becoming an issue."

Rob Masters, the owner of Mastercars, whose forecourt the car is parked in front of, said vehicles do park there "probably because there is a lowered pavement".

Mr Masters said: "Occasionally it happens. There are double yellow lines outside and people know not to stop on the road.

"I've seen people parking on the pavement. It's used as a pick-up and drop-off zone for people wanting to go into town.

"We do have allocated parking next to our shop for our customers, and people can park there, but if people park on the pavement there is little we can do. There are traffic wardens who come around here during the day, but at night it also happens."

The issue of cars parking on the pavements was highlighted last October in The Comet. We revealed there was very little local authorities could do about it because there was no legislation which specifically prohibited it.

In Letchworth GC there are byelaws which can lead to criminal proceedings, but these can only be used when council officials actually witness somebody driving onto the verge.

A byelaw for Hitchin was discussed by councillors at a meeting of North Herts District Council's Hitchin committee in September last year but it never took off.

In the agenda for the meeting, one of the reasons given against the idea was that to mount a prosecution in the magistrates' court the process is "likely to be relatively expensive and the resultant fine, should the member of the public be found guilty, is unlikely to cover the council's costs".

One option available to NHDC would be to use traffic regulation orders, which allows a council to serve penalty charge notices to drivers.

However these take quite a long time to put in place.