Ministers in Wales are backing the recommendations of an independent expert group to give councils additional civil enforcement powers to fine what they call problem parkers.

The Welsh Pavement Parking Taskforce rejected the outright ban being pursued in Scotland, which is set to take five years to implement, calling it “overly slow and complex”. Instead it has set out a plan to equip local authorities to act from July 2022.

“The current law is not as clear as it could be”, said Deputy Transport Minister, Lee Waters MS, who set up the taskforce.

“There is no specific offence of parking on pavements, and though the Police can enforce the existing criminal offence of causing ‘unnecessary obstruction of any part of the highway’, it is rarely enforced.

“We want more people to walk for short journeys and yet we tolerate an environment that is often not pedestrian friendly; too many routes are cluttered or blocked. A recent survey found that 83% of people in Wales view it as a real problem”.