Surrey County Council does not promote or support vehicles parking on pavements or grass verges.
Parking on grass verges and pavements is a common problem in Surrey (and across the whole of the UK). It can have a major impact on people. It can make it particularly hard for people with sight and mobility difficulties and for children in pushchairs. Other issues include:
- damage to grass verges and making them unsightly
- obstructing the highway
- preventing pedestrians and wheelchair users from accessing roads and footways if there is no other pathway.
Pavements are only designed and constructed to take the weight of pedestrians, mobility scooters and wheelchairs, so the weight of a car or goods vehicle can cause damage.
Parking on verges or pavements can also cause a hazard to other motorists especially if the vehicle is parked on a bend, narrow road or junction. We do not promote or support parking on grass verges or pavements.
Page contents
- Legal implications
- What action Surrey County Council can take
- Illegal items placed on verges
- Report a problem
Legal implications
In common law under the Highways Act 1980, the public have the right to pass and repass over the full width of the highway (includes roads, pavements and verges). There is no legal right to park on a road, verge or footway.
Waiting restrictions (yellow lines) cover the whole highway, from the centre of the road to the edge of the highway on that side, which often includes pavements, verges and other grassy areas.
This means you can get a parking ticket if you park on a pavement or verge next to yellow lines, even if your vehicle is not on the marked lines.
Where no waiting restrictions are present on the road, parking on a grass verge or pavement is not illegal. However, a driver may be open to prosecution if their vehicle is persistently damaging a verge, parked dangerously or causing an obstruction.
In addition, Surrey Police may take action if the parking is causing an obstruction, such as a situation where pedestrians, pram or wheelchair users are being forced into a busy road as a result of parking blocking the verge or pavement. Such cases should be reported to the police on the non-emergency phone number 101.
Under national legislation, goods vehicles weighing 7.5 tonnes or more are prohibited from parking on grass verges. Civil Enforcement Officers can issue Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) to offending vehicles.
What action Surrey County Council can take
When deciding what action to take, we must take several factors into account. These include:
- costs,
- ongoing maintenance
- and whether the problem will just be diverted further down the road.
We have the authority to consider installing timber posts in verges. We will decide this on a case-by-case basis, depending on local factors such as funding and knowledge of the location. Verge protection measures can divert the parking problem onto another area. There is often little that can be done about this although care must be taken to ensure that any measures are fair.
Similarly, we may install concrete or steel bollards on pavements. However, costs and the wish to reduce clutter means they will usually only be installed as part of another larger scheme or at sites of major concern.
We may also plant trees in the verge to deter parking. Small, young trees (suitable for the public highway) are planted at the required spacing for the type of tree. However, overhead cables, nearby street lighting columns and other street furniture often prevent this. Please visit our page planting trees on the highways for further information.
We rarely convert existing grass verges into hard surfaces due to cost and the negative environmental impact.
If posts, bollards or trees are damaged we are not obliged to replace them. It may not be cost-effective and requests are assessed individually.
Illegal items placed on verges
Some residents may take their own measures to prevent parking (often plant-pot shaped concrete blocks, large rocks, timber posts etc). Although these can be aesthetically pleasing, it is an offence to place unlawful items on the public highway.
As mentioned above, under the Highways Act 1980, the public have the right to pass and repass over the full width of the highway (includes roads, pavements and verges).
If unauthorised objects placed on verges are seen or reported we may request that the items are removed. Failing this, we can remove the items ourselves and usually at the home owner's expense.
Report a problem
If you would like to report parking on a pavement next to yellow line, or damage to a grass verge, please use our online Highways reporting system. Select 'Parking'. then the appropriate topic.