Drivers face massive fines for parking on the pavement

My name is Helen Nugent and I am a pavement parker. This is not a hobby or something I set out to do on a daily basis but, in many instances, it’s that or block the road to traffic and put cyclists’ lives at risk.

Britain’s roads weren’t built for this many vehicles. There are more than 25 million cars on UK roads, and that’s the licensed ones. Cities, towns and villages struggle to cope with available parking spaces. I can think of multiple places in my immediate vicinity where traffic is limited to single file because of vehicles parked on either side. And that’s often where people park on the pavement to ease congestion.

Whether this is due to a growing population, more women in work or the ever-increasing desire to own a car (and let’s not forget that a large number of families own a minimum of two), the bottom line is that Britain is a nation of car drivers. Last