5. Statement by the Deputy Minister for Economy and Transport: Tackling Pavement Parking

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:20 pm on 13 October 2020.

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Photo of Lee Waters Lee Waters Labour 5:20, 13 October 2020

Thank you. I think I can give some reassurance to Russell George's anxieties there, because he has set out the process of traffic regulation orders and exempting streets across a large area that would apply if there was a blanket ban, but, as I've made clear, it's not the proposal of the taskforce to create a blanket ban, nor the Welsh Government's proposal. So, all of those things he's described won't be necessary under this proposal. This is a much smarter and simpler way of doing it. The approach he sets out is the approach they're going to be doing in Scotland and we think that would be complex and cumbersome.

The approach that the taskforce has come up with is rather simpler than that, really: it's to say to local authorities, 'You know your communities best. We accept that not in every street is everybody able to avoid a pavement'—which I think is something we all need to reflect on; we've created an environment like that and we do need to come back to that, but, for now, what we can do in the meantime is to give powers to issue fines in those areas where it's been reported that anti-social parking is causing particular problems. So, for example, if it would be outside of a school or a particular setting, then they could blitz that area, if you like, with fines to avoid that anti-social behaviour. It would be a smart intervention, not a blanket approach. So, that's why I think the Welsh approach is better than the Scottish approach, in that it is more flexible; it allows the problem to be targeted where it is most manifested. As Russell George said, were we to have a blanket ban, every time we did think pavement parking was appropriate, we'd have to introduce individual traffic regulation orders for that particular street, which would be a very expensive and time-consuming process. So, I think there's a misunderstanding there, so I hope that my reassurance has given some comfort.

In terms of the funding, he's right, of course, there will be an implication from this for local authorities to be able to decide how they allocate their resources, and that's a conversation we'll be having with them in the run-up to this coming in.