PLYMOUTH City Council is trying to obtain the power to be able to ban residents from parking on pavements, it has been revealed.

'Pavement parking' is a major problem across the city and council officials are now investigating whether they can obtain the power to be able to tackle the continuing issue head on.

Councillor Kevin Wigens, Cabinet member for transport, said: "The issue of parking on pavements comes up time and again, and it is across the city.

"The situation, as I understand it, is that the issue is solely a police matter and comes down to whether a vehicle is causing an obstruction or not.

"Having said that, because we know it is such a problem we are actively investigating as an authority as to whether we could obtain the powers to deal with it ourselves.

"We know that other councils have been granted the power before, such as in certain parts of London where they put signs up stating that cars are not allowed to park on the pavement.

"If the signs are ignored then they now have the power to take action.

"We are very keen to see if we can obtain those same powers.

"It is by no means certain that we will be able to and if we are we will have to carefully look at how we would implement it.

"The people of Plymouth need to remember that everything to do with the highways is very prescriptive and takes a long time – there is no instant fix.

"But we are actively trying to resolve the issue."

The issue of pavement parking rears its ugly head across the city, with hotspots including Crossway in Plympton and Stanborough Road in Plymstock.

The law states that if a car is parked on or partly on a pavement and there are double yellow lines, it falls under the local council's responsibility. But if there are no yellow lines and the vehicle is causing an obstruction, it is a police matter.

A spokeswoman for Devon and Cornwall Police, said: "If a vehicle is causing an obstruction by being parked on or partly on a pavement and there are no double yellow lines on the highway, then the police can issue a fixed penalty notice to the driver."

The council's latest plan on how it intends to address the problem was announced by Cllr Wigens following a neighbourhood meeting at Plymstock Library.

Residents of Plymstock voiced their concerns about on-street parking to Cllr Nigel Churchill and Cllr Leaves, who agreed to investigate the matter further.

Cllr Churchill said: "It is a definite grey area which needs to be looked into. At the moment there seems to be some confusion as to whether it is a police or council matter."

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