Edinburgh parking: Council announce they are introducing instant fines for people parking their car on cycle lanes

Edinburgh council has announced that they will be issuing instant fines for cars parked in cycle lanes.

Edinburgh council has announced that from today (Monday, February 20) instant fines can be handed out to people who park on cycle lanes and pavements.

In a report on parking policy, the council noted that the “parking team receive regular complaints about vehicles which are parking on or obstructing the footway or cycleway and there are numerous images of such occurrences posted on social media every day.”

They added that they have so far been unable to act as, whilst the Transport Scotland Act 2019 prohibits parking on footways, the necessary regulations have “yet to be published to allow Local Authorities to use these powers.”

Edinburgh parking: Council announce they are introducing instant fines for people parking their car on cycle lanes

The report continued: “Whilst the council awaits the publication of these regulations, work has been commissioned, using funding from Transport Scotland, to assess all streets within the Council area in readiness for the legislation coming into effect.

“Parking attendants are asked to react to the requests for enforcement that they receive, however in many cases they are unable to take any action against the vehicle as there are no kerbside restrictions.”

The council confirm that currently, parking attendants are only able to take enforcement action if there is a kerbside restriction in place, and Police Scotland can only take action if they physically witness the vehicle driving on the footway. However, now attendants will be able to issue an instant fine for cars that obstruct footways or cycleways.

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