Parking on Pavements

Please have a look at the frankly bizarre story - via the link below - as related by the Liverpool Echo newspaper:-

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/council-slammed-belittling-response-taxi-26926494#ICID=Android_EchoNewsApp_AppShare

Apart from the bizarre response, what troubles me as a former leader of Sefton Council is that the reply doesn't even indicate how the Council deals with vehicles which are illegally parked, within the Borough that is.

I live in Sefton Borough and some of the 'parking' I see on an everyday basis is at best anti-social behaviour and at worst illegal 'abandonment' of a vehicle. Yes, of course some drivers have acquired the habit of always parking with two wheels on the pavement even where there is absolutely no reason to do it. Most of the time this creates a minor inconvenience for the majority of pedestrians, although this ratchets up considerably for people pushing prams, those on mobility scooters and people with disabilities, particularly blind and partially sighted pedestrians.

But, of course, when you combine a busy road and a narrow pavement even just two wheels on the pavement can cause a significant obstruction. When you add to that situation one where the driver has put all or the vast majority of their vehicle on a pavement then everyone else using the pavement is blocked from doing so and is forced into the road!

My point is that Sefton Council should not only have apologised for it's ridiculous response, it should also have taken the opportunity to say what it actually does to try to make the Borough's pavements safer, how residents can report such issues and what expectations they can have that action will be taken.

As an exercise in public relations Sefton Council has shot itself in both feet, which begs the question about who responds on behalf of the council, who checks such responses and the training required to ensure all the Council's communications with outside world are appropriate, easily understood, polite and helpful.

My former councillor colleague David Tattersall, who sat on Sefton’s Cabinet in the early 2000’s and spent his working life public relations, would despair I have little doubt. On more than one occasion I saw David pulling up council officers when communications were, in his view, missing the point or not making a clear point.

 

With thanks to Keith Page for raising the issue with me.