Edinburgh roads: Residents furious as frustrated motorists drive on footway after pavement parking ban

Shocking video footage captured first a car and then a van followed another car speeding along the pavement

Fraser Avenue, off Granton Road, has unusually broad pavements and quite a narrow carriageway.  Before the ban was introduced, residents always parked fully on the pavement, but they say that still left plenty room for people in wheelchairs or with buggies.

Since the ban, they have had to park on the road, but that makes it more difficult for traffic to get past on the carriageway - and there have been several instances of motorists deciding to drive down the broad empty pavements instead.

Fraser Avenue has unusually broad pavements, where residents used to park. They say it still left plenty of room for wheelchairs and buggies to pass. | Google

One resident, Emma Campbell, said: "Since the new regulations against parking on the pavement came in, it has been a nightmare to get down the road. The day after it started a bin lorry got stuck and had to beep his horn until someone came out and moved their car. 

“Then I watched a fire engine have to reverse back up the road with its siren on because it couldn't get down the road. At that point I emailed the council and said 'This is dangerous, when it would be perfectly acceptable for us to park on the pavements because the pavements are so wide even if we do.'”

The video footage, taken by a neighbour, shows two separate occasions when vehicles drove along the pavement - first a car is seen travelling at some speed; then, another day, a van followed by another car, also going quite fast.

Ms Campbell said: “The first driver was obviously impatient he couldn't get past. He drove up the pavement for about 20 metres and then back onto the road.

“Then there was a white van speeding down the pavement for pretty much the majority of Fraser Avenue, followed by a Corsa.  This was 8.50am, when people are walking to school - including me and my daughter. They were going so fast - it's obviously just an accident waiting to happen.

“There are lots of children live in this street. They scoot and ride their bikes along the pavement and if a car is bumping up onto the kerb, my child is five - you can't really see her. Someone is going to get run over.”

She said because of a collapsed sewer on Granton Road, traffic was currently being diverted down Fraser Road, meaning the road was busier than usual.  “I feel really anxious about it because of all the kids on the street. The speed these cars are going at, not even an adult could have jumped out of the way.”

And she believes it would be sensible to allow the previous practice of parking on the pavement to continue since it is so wide. “I feel the council has just introduced this as a blanket regulation without considering the impact it's going to have, particularly on a road like ours which has the biggest pavements I've ever seen.

“Before the regulations, everyone comfortably parked on the pavement and there was still an entire car space free for walking and wheelchairs and buggies, so the problem didn't exist on this road to begin with - and now they've just created a problem ten-fold.

“The other day, my little girl went off our driveway onto the pavement and I told her to come back and I thought, ‘Why am I having to do this?’   And we've had to say we can't let her scoot on the pavement any more, which she loved doing.

“If they had just said, ‘In this road it would create more hazards if we introduce the ban, so we'll just leave it’, we wouldn't have this situation.”

Edinburgh was the first council in Scotland to enforce a complete ban on pavement parking earlier this year and it has adopted a strict policy of allowing no exemptions.

Transport convener Scott Arthur said:  "Pavement parking ban has been incredibly successful in creating a safer environment for people to move around, particularly people who use wheelchairs and also parents pushing buggies."People have a responsibility to park in a way which doesn't block the road to other users and also drive within the law."