East Suffolk Council

Nuisance parking

What is nuisance parking?

Some garages and businesses place cars for sale, for an extended period, on the street, and in lay-bys. This can cause a significant nuisance to local residents and takes up valuable car parking spaces. The same is true with vehicles that are repaired on the street, which can also look unsightly, can lead to damage of the local environment (for example when oil is spilled or leaked) and may also present a danger to passers by. The Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 introduced legal controls over these activities.

Selling vehicles on the road

The offence of selling vehicles on the road is intended to target those people who run a business selling motor vehicles and use the road as a mock showroom. This behaviour is unfair to local residents and neighbouring businesses who are thereby deprived of using the road themselves to park vehicles and go about their daily lives.

A person commits an offence if he leaves two or more motor vehicles parked within 500 metres of each other on a road or roads where they are exposed or advertised for sale for the purposes of a business of selling motor vehicles. It is not intended to target occasional individual private sellers of single vehicles.

Report roadside vehicle sales online

Repairing vehicles on the road

The offence of repairing a vehicle is also aimed primarily at those that act irresponsibly as part of a business and who are attempting to use the road as a mock workshop.

A person who carries out any works for the repair, maintenance, servicing, improvement or dismantling of a motor vehicle or of any part of or accessory to a motor vehicle and works for the installation, replacement or renewal of any such part or accessory on a road in the course of a business is guilty of an offence. This does not apply to private individuals who are carrying out minor work to their vehicles or those who carry out necessary work to vehicles by the side of the road in order to get them moving again after a breakdown or accident.

Report roadside vehicle repairs online

Parking on footways and verges

It is imperative all drivers comply with the rules and laws of the highway regardless of whether or not kerb-space management regulations are installed. Dangerous, obstructive, and generally inconsiderate parking practices are not acceptable, and:

• parking on a footway or verge either two or four wheels up is inappropriate because it can damage electrical, gas and other services running under, as well as be an obstruction for pedestrians. Drivers tend to consider obstruction of a carriageway for other vehicles and park on the footway because they rarely consider their vehicle causes an obstruction for pedestrians. Additionally, driving on a footway is an offence enforceable by the police.
• some kerb-space management regulations apply from the centreline of the carriageway to the highway boundary, which is typically the boundary of the adjacent property. Such regulations include ‘No waiting’ (yellow line) regulations and drivers risk receiving a parking fine should they choose to park on the footway or verge ‘behind’ such regulations.
• parking on verges during wet weather will damage the verge and dirty the highway making it unsafe for all highway users, and the churned verge will be increasingly unsightly and detract from the pleasantness of the street-scene.