Greater London Council (General Powers) Act 1974

15 As to parking on footways, grass verges, etc.U.K.

(1)Subject to subsections (3), (4), (7) and (11) of this section and without prejudice to the provisions of any other enactment, any person who, on or after the appointed day in or on any urban road in Greater London parks a vehicle so that one or more of its wheels is resting on—

(a)any footway;

(b)any land (not being a footway) which is situated between two carriageways in any such road; or

(c)any grass verge, garden or space not falling within the foregoing paragraph (a) or (b);

shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding [F1level 1 on the standard scale].

(2)(a)An offence committed under the foregoing subsection shall be deemed, for the purposes of [F2Schedule 12 to the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984], to be an offence committed in respect of a vehicle by its being left or parked in a road.

(b)For the purposes of [F3section 172 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 and sections 11 and 12 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 (duty to give information about drivers and admissability of certain evidence)] or section 17 (Duty to give information in certain cases) of the M1 Greater London Council (General Powers) Act 1972, an offence committed under the foregoing subsection shall be deemed to be an offence against an enactment relating to the use of vehicles on roads.

(c)A local authority may prosecute in respect of any offence under the foregoing subsection which is committed in its area.

(3)A person shall not be convicted of an offence under this section with respect to a vehicle if he proves to the satisfaction of the court that the vehicle was parked—

(a)in accordance with permission given by a constable in uniform; or

(b)for the purpose of saving life or extinguishing a fire or meeting any other emergency; or

(c)for the purpose of rendering assistance at the scene of an accident or a bona fide breakdown involving one or more vehicles, and—

(i)such assistance could not have been safely or satisfactorily rendered if the vehicle had not been so parked; and

(ii)the vehicle was not left unattended at any time while it was so parked; or

(d)for the purpose of loading or unloading goods, and—

(i)the loading or unloading of the vehicle could not have been satisfactorily performed if it had not been so parked; and

(ii)the vehicle was not left unattended at any time while it was so parked.

(4)A highway authority may by resolution, or in the case of the Secretary of State by such notice as appears to him to be appropriate, authorise, from a date specified in the resolution or notice, the parking vehicles on, or on part of, any such footway, grass verge, garden, space or land as is referred to in subsection (1) of this section and is in or on any highway; and notwithstanding the provisions of this section or of any other enactment or any rule of law, it shall be lawful from the specified date for any person to park a vehicle on the footway, grass verge, garden, space or land, or on the part thereof, as the case may be, to which the said resolution or notice relates and is for the time being in force.

(5)A highway authority shall, before the date specified in a resolution passed or notice issued in accordance wih the last foregoing subsection, take such steps as are necessary to secure the placing on or near the footway, grass verge, garden, space or land, or the part thereof, to which the resolution or notice relates of such traffic signs in such position as they consider requisite.

(6)A highway authority may pass a resolution or issue a notice, as the case may be, for the purposes of subsection (4) of this section and may take the steps referred to in the last foregoing subsection before the appointed day:

(7)(a)Nothing in this section shall make it unlawful under subsection (1) of this section to park a vehicle of any of the following descriptions, that is to say:—

(i)vehicles used for fire brigade purposes;

(ii)vehicles used for police purposes;

(iii)vehicles used for ambulance purposes;

(iv)street cleansing purposes;

(v)vehicles used for the collection of refuse;

(vi)vehicles used for the purpose of gritting or salting or the clearance of snow;

(vii)vehicles used for the purpose of cleansing, repairing or maintaining lighting apparatus;

(viii)vehicles used in connection with the reconstruction, alteration or maintenance of, or the provision of services to, a road, or of or to any premises adjoining a road;

(ix)vehicles used in connection with the placing, inspecting, maintaining, adjusting, repairing, altering, renewing or removing of apparatus or accommodation therefor in, under or over a road;

(x)any vehicle not falling within sub-paragraph (viii) or (ix) of this paragraph used by statutory undertakers in pursuance of their statutory powers or duties provided that is reasonably necessary for the vehicle to be so parked;

(xi)vehicles of any class for the time being specified by resolution of the Council for the purposes of this subsection;

(xii)any vehicle, specified by the highway authority from time to time for the purposes of this subsection, which is parked at such place and at such time as may be authorised by that highway authority.

(b)In sub-paragraph (ix) of the foregoing paragraph “apparatus” means any apparatus belonging to statutory undertakers or for the maintenance of which they are responsible (including any structure for the lodging therein of apparatus), and includes any apparatus belonging to the British Railways Board [F4London Regional Transport or any subsidiary of London Regional Transport (within the meaning of the London Regional Transport Act 1984)] or for the maintenance of which [F5that Board or (as the case may be) London Regional Transport or that subsidiary is] responsible.

(8)In this section “the appointed day” means such day (being a day no earlier than 1st January, 1975) as may be fixed by resolution of the Council, after consultation with the Association and the Secretary of State, subject to and after complying with the next following subsection.

(9)The Council shall cause to be published in a newspaper circulating throughout the whole of Greater London notice—

(a)of the passing of the resolution referred to in the last foregoing subsection and of the day fixed thereby; and

(b)of the general effect of the provisions of this section coming into operation on that day;

and the day so fixed shall not be earlier than the expiration of one month from the date of publication of the said notice.

(10)Either—

(a)a copy of the newspaper containing the notice referred to in the last foregoing subsection; or

(b)a photostatic or other reproduction, certified by the Director-General and Clerk to the Council to be a true reproduction, of a page or part of a page of the said newspaper bearing the date of its publication and containing the said notice;

shall be evidence of the publication of the notice and of the date of the publication.

(11)This section shall not apply to a road maintainable by the British Railways Board or the London Transport Executive.

(12)In this section—

“the Association” means the association of borough councils known, at the date of the passing of this Act, as the London Boroughs Association or any association for the time being successor thereto of the nature referred to in subsection (2) of section 7 of the M2London Government Act 1963 of which all borough Councils are members or, in the absence of any such association as aforesaid, a majority of the borough councils;

“carriageway” means a way of constituting or comprised in an urban road, being a way (other than a cycle track) over which the public have a right of way for the passage of vehicles;

“footway” means a way comprised in an urban road which also comprises a carriage way, being a way over which the public have a right of way on foot only;

“goods” includes goods or burden of any description;

“highway authority” means the Secretary of State in respect of all trunk roads, the Council in respect of all metropolitan roads and a borough council or the Common Council, as the case may be, in respect of all streets in their area, whether or not maintainable at the public expense, which are not for the time being trunk roads or metropolitan roads;

“urban road” means a road which—

(a)is a restricted road for the purposes of [F6section 81 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984]; or

(b)is subject to an order under [F7section 84 of that Act] imposing a speed limit not exceeding 40 miles per hour; or

(c)is subject to a speed limit not exceeding 40 miles per hour which is imposed by or under any local enactment;

“vehicle” means a mechanically propelled vehicle or a vehicle designed or adapted for towing by, or to be attached to, a mechanically propelled vehicle but does not include a heavy commercial vehicle within the meaning of [F8section 19 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 (heavy commercial vehicles)].