Residents fed up of 'dangerous' parking on verges

Cars are often parked on the grass verges, and pavements, on Scarborough Avenue in Skegness

Motorists are driving cars down pedestrian footpaths to park on grass verges in a seaside town, residents have said.

People living on and near Scarborough Avenue in Skegness warned it was dangerous and pedestrians might be knocked down.

Childminder Caroline Miller said: "I've been down here loads of times where cars have nearly knocked into us. I think someone's going to be hit eventually."

Lincolnshire County Council, which is responsible for roads, said it would assess concerns raised by residents, while any safety issues should be referred to the police.

Caroline Miller says motorists have beeped at her to get out of the way

"One time I was here with quite a large group of children waiting to cross the road," Ms Miller said, while standing on a corner of Scarborough Avenue.

"A car was coming, another one was behind them. I got beeped, they were beeping their horn, wanting me to move out the way so they could drive down the pavement. It was crazy."

Residents said it was a big problem during summer months when parking in the town was busier and more expensive.

Darren Shephard, who lives nearby, said: "There are kids running around in the summertime and they could get run over."

There was "ample car parking", he added, "but people just don't want to pay".

Fellow resident Denise Walborne said she could not "get past safely with the grandchildren when they're parked there".

In Lincoln, meanwhile, drivers parking on grass verges were criticised for creating a "muddy mess".

City Councillor Debbie Armiger described them as "verge vandals".

A damaged verge in Kingsway, Lincoln

Parking on pavements and verges can be prohibited by a local authority under local traffic regulation orders (TROs).

However, last year the Local Government Association said councils did not have the powers they needed to tackle the problem effectively and called for a national ban.

In a letter to Skegness Town Council last month, county council leader Sean Matthews said civil officers enforced existing TROs for waiting restrictions, such as on yellow lines, which usually also applied to adjacent verges.

Where "significant risks" were identified, the county council would liaise with the police.

He promised a review of the situation in Skegness and pointed out that the government had consulted on a national ban in 2020, but no formal decision had been announced.

Kyra Nettle, the county council's highways manager said the problem was seen "quite widely across the county".

The authority recognised it could "cause an issue for people living on those streets and can cause a safety problem".

"If there's a safety issue then it needs to be referred to police," she added.

She said if the highway was in a safe condition it was "unlikely that we will take action with bollards or anything like that".

She added: "Absolutely they can report to their local councillor and we can assess it."

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