Fireworks
Firstly, a date for your diary. The annual fireworks display organised and paid for by Codicote Parish Council will be held on Saturday 2nd November at the Bury Lane Sports & Social Club for a 7.30pm start. Admission is free, but parking on site is for blue badge holders only. Attendees are strongly encouraged to walk to the event.
Parking Enforcement
The Police attended the September meeting of the full Council to address two issues that Council are particularly concerned about. These are the latest crime figure report and car parking enforcement for Codicote. The following taken from the discussion gives details on action members of the public can take in respect of inconsiderate and dangerous parking.
Concerns are continuing to be raised with the obstructive parking along parks of the High Street, Codicote.
The below is a reminder to residents who may be obstructing footpaths along the High St.
The offence of unnecessary obstruction of the highway, which includes the road as well as the pavement, already exists and has not been decriminalised. There are existing statutes and regulations which allow proceedings to be brought by the police under criminal law for situations where parking on the pavement, in such a way as to cause obstruction, is deemed to be avoidable. These include:
- Section 137 of the Highways Act 1980, as amended; for wilfully obstructing the free passage along a highway.
- Regulation 103 of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 as amended; for causing or permitting a motor vehicle or trailer to stand on a road so as to cause any unnecessary obstruction of the road.
- Section 99 of the Road Traffic Act 1984 – makes provisions for the removal of vehicles on a road if they cause an obstruction, likely to cause danger to persons, believed to be abandoned or have broken down.
Understandably this creates a hazard and risk to members of the public using the foot path; it’s especially dangerous to vulnerable members of the community who may use mobility aids or parents using push chairs and walking with young children who then must navigate dangerously parked vehicles next to a busy road.
Local Sergeant Taz Gill confirmed in the meeting ‘any inappropriate parking that is not a risk to life can be reported to 101. Once reported you can request to upload an image of the obstruction for consideration by a police officer to have the vehicle removed. For inconsiderate parking that does present a risk to life, for example, forcing pedestrians into the road or likely to cause a collision, this should be reported via 999. Your local officers recently issued several warnings to vehicle owners who had parked inconsiderately. This hasn’t had the desired effect, so the Police are now adopting a zero-tolerance approach to these obstructions.’
There is also an online method of reporting certain offences, moving road traffic offences being one of them. The link is – Report | Hertfordshire Constabulary (herts.police.uk), this link enables footage to be uploaded and reviewed by our Camera, Tickets and Collisions department for prosecution.