A pavement parking odyssey

[Accy cyclist]

Yes - you can walk on the grass -perfectly OK - I can do that

except when it is wet and the grass is muddy - not only do my shoes get muddy but the grass gets churned up
also the grass is not designed to cope with any volume of traffic and will wear out and become soil/mudd

also - ever tried pushing an adult in a wheelchair over grass??
and some mobility scooters have quite small wheels and might not be all that good over sloping grass

not really acceptable - they are just making people walk in the road

Of course, if you slip in the grass and injure yourself the driver may be in bother.

What few folk appreciwte is that you don't need to physically collide with someone to be responsible for an injury. Your motor vehicle needs only be present on a road or other public place. If Accy walked round on the wet grass, slipped and broke his hip (and assuming I were still a copper) I'd book that van on as Vehicle (1).

The classic example is a vehicle that parks on a blind curve that forces drivers blindly into incoming traffic. The vehicle may not physically be touched at all, but its presence on a road is responsible for the resulting head on collision. Known similar get to court a couple of times over my 3 decades, including a blind man that fell and injured himself because some tool revving a stationary motorbike nearby gave the poor old feller the impression the bike was coming straight at him.

That corner is still recovering after being being churned up in December last year by another transit van. I had to walk on that in my highly polished, expensive boots! I looked round for a scruff who I could ask to lay their cloak on the road for me to walk on, rather than walk on that mud, but sadly and unusually no scruffs were around at the time! 🧐 But seriously though, that is one nasty 'couldn't give a toss' turf churn up!!!

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Yup - next road down from ours has a grass verge badly churned up.
It happened over the winter and must have been a bog lorry as the tread marks are several inches deep!

Where I used to live there was a Welsh Water building with a locked gate leading to it
However the fence around the rest of the building was down and there were very deep tyre tracks where the people visiting the building hadn;t bothered to go to the trouble of unlocking and opening the gate to get access

Some people have no clue about how to behave

 

[Drago]

Some people have no clue about how to behave

That's about it right there.

 

[Accy cyclist]

The classic example is a vehicle that parks on a blind curve that forces drivers blindly into incoming traffic.

What about when vehicles are parked right next to, even over junctions? The other day I had to drive very slowly right up to the white middle line (if there was one there, but you'll know what I mean) so I could look right for approaching traffic. This was due to a car parked on my right, on the road I wanted to turn right onto and parked right on the corner of the junction. As I crept out a hidden to my sight car approached from the right and had to break slightly abruptly. The driver gave me a 'why have you pulled out' stare, but I had to take a chance due to that view blocking vehicle!

 

[Drago]

Yep, it's an offence Accy. The problem is that parking ha been deregulated and in almost all parts of the country the powers handed to the councils. The councils employ the Taliban, who are only interested in town centre beats because that's where the money is. The rest of the world gets left to stew.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

There is a main road that runs past our estate and then a road then feeds into the whole estate

At the point where we turn into it there are normally at least 3 cars parked immediately as you get into the road
followed by the road turning sharp right after only a few years
and, naturally, often several cars parked on the curve

Basically turning into the road can be a complete nightmare if another car is coming in/out as you are doing the other one

To be safe I always slow down almost to a stop when turning off the main road so I can compensate for any problems - such as a car parked on each side and a car trying to exit the estate as I come in.

This has, on some occaisions, resulted in cars behind be being taken by surprise and having to swerve around me or brake sharply as I slow down more than they expect.
Clearly behind be was not paying attention fully - but it is the parking all over the damn place that causes the problem.


I suppose I could report it to the counsel as there are actually double yellow line on the road for the first few yards and also there are regulations about how close you can park to the junction
but then people have an absolute %deity given inalienable RIGHT to park outside their own house so that won;t work!

 

[Drago]

Should be like the Tokyo prefecture. There you have to prove that you have somewhere off road to park a car before they grant you the necessary permit that enables you to buy one. Those that don't are stuck with tiny Kei cars with minimal footprint.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

People next door to us have a car each - for 3 of them
Plus he and his son both have work vans that they bring home reach night
Hence 5 vehicles present every night and all weekend

Which is why they paved the whole of their front garden so they can park all the vehicles

people in the first house coming into the estate have a very short driveway due to the road curve caused by the junction - they also have a small front garden
Their drive is normally taken up by the large van they bring home every day
leaving their other 2 cars to be parked in front of their house - as mentioned above this is their $deity given right!!!
and leaving the road into the estate as a nightmare to get into and out of a lot fo the time

but they COULD pave their drive and make room to park 1 or possible 2 other cars


When I was looking for this house my main criteria was that there MUST be parking for my car off road - plus parking for a visitor without causing problems for other people

I recognise that a lot of people cannot do this - but some people seem to refuse to consider others when buying a new car

 

[Drago]

Using company vehicles for travelling to and from home is a taxable perq. Grass them to the revenue and within weeks they'll have stopped doing it (unless they're self employed and it's their own vans, in which case you're stuffed.)

 

[DRM]

Using company vehicles for travelling to and from home is a taxable perq. Grass them to the revenue and within weeks they'll have stopped doing it (unless they're self employed and it's their own vans, in which case you're stuffed.)

If you've opted out of private use, it isn't taxable at all, however you cannot use the van at all to nip to the shop, or anywhere else that is not for work use

 

[stephec]

If you've opted out of private use, it isn't taxable at all, however you cannot use the van at all to nip to the shop, or anywhere else that is not for work use

I know someone in this position, drives the van from home everyday, he said that the van was tracked and he couldn't even stop at Tesco to do a bit of shopping on the way home in case the taxman happened to see the record of his van's trips.

 

[Drago]

It's declarable and there are tax an NI implications for the company, if not the individual.

https://www.gov.uk/expenses-and-benefits-company-vans

Many outfits simply let staff do it and say nothing, so it's always worth the phone call if you want to stiff them.

 

[mjr]

Yep, it's an offence Accy. The problem is that parking ha been deregulated and in almost all parts of the country the powers handed to the councils. The councils employ the Taliban, who are only interested in town centre beats because that's where the money is. The rest of the world gets left to stew.

No, we get stuck in the middle of a disgraceful game of "pass the Buck" about whether it's a parking offence that's council responsibility, or a highway obstruction that's police responsibility.

The Taliban would probably deal with it by inflicting an entirely different sort of cuts to those that councils and police are recently enjoying.

 

[DRM]

I know someone in this position, drives the van from home everyday, he said that the van was tracked and he couldn't even stop at Tesco to do a bit of shopping on the way home in case the taxman happened to see the record of his van's trips.

We were told that to stop off at a shop on the way home is acceptable, however you can only use the van for business purposes, ie from home to first job, last job to home, no private use in any way shape or form ours are tracked too, so there’s no getting away with anything .

 

[DRM]

It's declarable and there are tax an NI implications for the company, if not the individual.

https://www.gov.uk/expenses-and-benefits-company-vans

Many outfits simply let staff do it and say nothing, so it's always worth the phone call if you want to stiff them.

From the link you posted on the HMRC website,
A business journey is a trip:

• made as part of work (such as a service engineer travelling between appointments)
• to a temporary workplace

Vans used for ‘insignificant’ private journeys are exempt, for example making a slight detour to pick up a newspaper on the way to work.