Status unknown
Car Dealership Blocking Sidewalk
Reported in the Pavement Damaged/Cracked category anonymously at 14:10, Sun 1 March 2015
Sent to Barnet Borough Council 5 minutes later. FixMyStreet ref: 596729.
Although the sidewalk is very wide, there is never enough space for pedestrians to walk in this area as a result of the car dealerships parking their cars on the sidewalk, and having the remaining little space left blocked with their advertising signs.
I was passing with a friend who is a wheelchair user, and we had to take the wheelchair on the road to pass by that area. Very dangerous and this problem has been on going for a few years now.
Cars should never be parked on the sidewalk.
Updates
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I think you need to take this up with the street trading licensing people (not covered by FixMyStreet).
Except, possibly, for one vehicle in the foreground, I don't think any of the vehicles are parked on the sidewalk. I think they all have all their wheels on a private forecourt. There is a flaw in the footway parking law that means that it can't be applied to vehicles that merely overhang the footway.
The police may still be able to treat it as an obstruction, but the council can only ticket the vehicles if they have wheels on the public footway.
However, the advertising board is probably subject to licensing and the selling vehicles in that location will require a street trading licence, as the forecourt is open and within 7 metres of a footway. I would hope that any street trading licence they have forbids overhanging the public part of the footway. If not, I imagine the council could be encouraged to add it when the licence is renewed.
It is possible to find out if they have such a licence on one of Barnet's web sites, but I've forgotten how to navigate to it. (Many of Barnet's web sites seem to have broken over night!)
The reason the footway often appears wide on commercial streets is that half of it is actually unfenced private land. You can often tell the difference by discontinuities in the the paving. In this case, I think the paving stones are probably public land and the land nearer the windows private. The asphalt in the foreground is more difficult to analyze.
This update is not from the council.
Posted anonymously at 16:15, Sun 1 March 2015
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