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news
Council issues nuisance notice for cargo bike parked on pavement (credit - Will Prochaska)Council slaps nuisance notice on family cargo bike parked on pavement
Hackney Council has come in for criticism after an enforcement notice was placed on a family-owned cargo bike which was parked on a pavement, demanding its removal within seven days.
The bike belongs to Will Prochaska, who uses it to transport his three children, one aged four and two two-year-old twins, to nursery and at the weekend. As the family does not have access to adequate private storage space, the bike is parked outside on the pavement, where it was issued with a seven-day notice from the council yesterday.
According to Section 149 of the Highways Act 1980, “If anything is so deposited on a highway as to constitute a nuisance, the highway authority for the highway may by notice require the person who deposited it there to remove it forthwith.”
If the perceived nuisance isn’t removed by the owner within a week, the local authority may lodge a complaint with a magistrates’ court or remove the offending item themselves immediately.
We were shocked to find a council notice on our bike today saying it’s a nuisance that will be removed in 7 days.☹ We think it's a fantastic example of healthy travel. It’s parked in a way that doesn't block the pavement. Where can we move it? @metecoban92 @hackneycouncil pic.twitter.com/bIHYcVu86d
— Will Prochaska (@WillProchaska) September 6, 2022
After Will posted on Twitter about the unexpected notice – which came about after another resident complained to Hackney Council about the bike’s position on the footpath, which they claimed had been parked there for over a year – the council responded by tweeting that the bike “is causing an obstruction on the pavement so it would need to be removed and parked somewhere safe. This can be on your own private property or somewhere designated for bicycles.”
Hi there, this is causing an obstruction on the pavement so it would need to be removed and parked somewhere safe. This can be on your own private property or somewhere designated for bicycles.
— Hackney Council (@hackneycouncil) September 7, 2022
The council’s rather blunt reply provoked something of a backlash on Twitter, with many questioning the authority’s definition of an ‘obstruction’, while some called on Hackney Council to provide more adequate cycle parking facilities, so the likes of Will won’t feel forced to leave their bikes on the footpath.
Mete Coban, Hackney Council’s cabinet member for Energy, Waste, Transport and Public Realm, appeared to agree with the online consensus regarding the need for more spaces to legally park cargo bikes in the area, tweeting: “On the wider point about cycle storage, I think we need to move beyond the cycle hangars, and certainly, we shouldn't be penalising people for opting for healthier travel modes.”
Credit: Will Prochaska
“I think the case shows the desperate need for cargo bike parking solutions in Hackney,” Will told road.cc today. “As it is, the way we park our bike never blocks the pavement, so the argument that it’s an obstruction is false.”
Despite living in one of Hackney’s Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, Will says that getting around on his cargo bike is often difficult due to the “hostile atmosphere towards cyclists” exhibited by a minority of motorists. Two years ago, he claims that an Audi driver verbally abused him and his daughter after knocking him off his bike, leaving Will injured on the street while his child remained attached to the cargo bike.
We've been asking for on street cargo bike storage for a while, but until (if) that comes, does this basically mean you can't own a cargo bike in hackney? Either that or you have to have off street parking? I'm hoping this is just a poorly trained/anti cyclist officer
— Will Prochaska (@WillProchaska) September 6, 2022
Nevertheless, Will remains full of praise for Hackney Council’s progressive cycling and active travel policies, as well as their “fantastic” implementation of LTNs – a positive record, he says, which “makes it incongruous to then disincentivise cargo bikes”.
“Hackney Council have led the way in the UK to support active travel, so this nuisance notice was a surprise,” he tells road.cc.
“I suspect it’s indicative of an over-zealous council officer who may have a chip on their shoulder about cyclists.
“Helpfully, it’s illustrated a need for proper cargo bike parking solutions, which should be available on every street. Only then will more families like mine be able to give up their cars and choose cargo bikes as a safe and secure mode of transport.”
> Hackney woman told to knock down bike shed - because it's too tall
Responding to road.cc’s request for comment, a spokesperson for Hackney Council said: “We’re London’s top borough for cycling, with nearly one in four of our residents cycling once a week and the most residential cycle parking of any London borough.
“We’ve just announced the introduction of 675 new cycle hangars, doubling what we already have, and it’s really important that we continue to encourage people to travel healthily, including by cargo bike.
“The aim of enforcement notices like this is to keep our pavements clear of obstructions for prams and people who use wheelchairs. We received a complaint from a resident about this cargo bike, who stated the cargo bike had been parked there for over a year.
“However, we do recognise that it can be hard for people to park cargo bikes if they don’t have private space for it. We are happy to discuss the issue with Mr Prochaska and have asked him to contact us so we can find a solution.”
After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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35 comments
Fuck it. Tarquin will revert to using the chelsea tractor from now on. Nice work Hackney t c.
Damned if they do....
Would he be able to leave it chained to the same lamp post but parked on the road?
Exactly what I was thinking - take up space on the road like all of the cars are doing.
From a pedestrian viewpoint, I think a chain from the lamp post to the road would be worse than the bike being on the pavement.
Really? Well, just wait until you hear about those charging cables for electric cars...
Well, indeed.
Quite. But "won't you think of the blind / partially sighted..."
Being positive - Ranty Highwayman has an article exploring this.
I feel pity for the guy who started the process of stoping a guy with 3 children parking a bicycle (ok cargo bicycle) on a wide pavement that hardly reduces its available width. He or she must have a very miserable life.
Just found this scene in Google streetview in Hackney: https://goo.gl/maps/8vijMAJ6TTjFqWPe7
Two things I noticed.
Firstly, the Council has provided, in some places, dedicated on-pavement parking for cycles. So clearly the council does not believe that cycles can never be stored on the pavement. I would certainly question whether Mr Prochaska's parking is any more of a nuisance or obstruction than those bikes using the infrastructure provided.
Secondly, the other apparently acceptable option would appear to be to simply acquire a massive flat bad truck that doesn't even fit in a parking space and park your bicycle on that!
Also, judging by the state of their tyres, those two bikes have been left there for some time.
Don't store your private property on the pavement.
That goes for cars/cargo bikes/fish tanks etc.
Also, If you use the pavement for storing your private property and the council then politely ask you to stop doing so please don't make out you're some sort of victim.
and just because Chris Boardman mentioned it today actual tanks (its an apc apparently) too
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/mas...
So are you saying we can never lock a bike up on the pavement?
Can't speak for that but we have processes in existence now for dealing with property in the way and / or possibly abandoned property in public spaces. So it's not a biggie.
Why is this an "issue" given the UK's miniscule bike use in most places? We've given over so much public space to (private) cars. So everyone - kids in buggies, people in wheelchairs and mobility scooters, even people pushing bikes - is squeezed to the edges of the space. If there was more walking there would be conflict, never mind cycling.
First task then - do we want to continue to prioritise motor vehicles (mostly private, mostly underoccupied) and their storage (96% of the time) in our public spaces? If we do change, when we eventually get there we can draw on a range of solutions to cycle parking [1], [2] and management.
Outside of London you're allowed to park cars on the pavement (Legislation/enforcement of legislation is pending in Wales and Scotland) so given that I'd say short term parking of normal bikes is acceptable if no alternatives exist.
In an ideal world I'd prefer the pavement was not used to store anything at all. I think it's the height of selfishness.
I think it is the height of selfishness if it blocks the pavement (by which I mean so that, for example, a powered wheelchair couldn't get past, or a visually impaired person might be impeded) but otherwise I don't see a problem. Cycle parking facilities are nearly always on pavements (including those adapted lamp posts like in the google view link from Awavey).
Strangely the powered wheelchair example is why I have such little time for those who obstruct pavements.
A relative of mine requires a very large powered wheelchair. The amount of times we have had to go into a busy road, take a long detour or occasionally abandon our trip altogether because the pavement has been blocked is almost incalculable. Imagine the effect that has on somebody for whom any trip outside the house is an enormous challenge anyway.
Pavements are there for a reason.
The reason is not the storage of private property.
Designated facilities on the pavement are another matter. I've no issue with people using those as long as they are leaving plenty of space. If you have a larger bike then not all facilities will be appropriate.
I don't think we're really in disagreement - certainly not in principle. I just don't think (from the picture) that the cargo bike is causing an obstruction.
Park it on the road, zipped up safely inside one of these?
The Act applies if "any thing is so deposited on a highway as to constitute a nuisance". So you'd have to wonder why it only seems to be used against a single tricycle deposited on the highway, and not the multitude of cars deposited on the highway.
But it is OK the park cars & vans like this:
But the bike is easy to nick !
Just park down the street on the road where the cars are. Simple's. You wouldn't think twice if it were a motorbike.
Poor bike parking provision doesn't mean we get to park on the pavement like some kind of ...... motorist.
I'm not sure anyone who owns a cargo bike wider than a wheely bin can say they aren't blocking the pavement, even if it's butted up against existing street furniture
I'm sympathetic to the general problem tho....
Have to agree. The pavement probably isn't the place for it, so until adequate facilities are in place (bah-ha-ha-ha-ha) do as drivists do and store it in the road.
How is it less of a nuisance there?
Clearly it wouldn't be. I think you may be missing my point?
Because visually impaired people are not walking down the road likely to trip over it. Wheelchair users and pushchair users are not forced into the road to go round it. If it's lined up with parked cars it is caused no nuisance to anyone (other than someone else who wants to park in that space, but he was there first so...)
More tricky if it is permit only parking and a bike does not count. That was one thing I hoped would be addressed as it is a charge of 10.50 a year to park a electric vehicle would they give him a permit ?
Looks like there is hope though based on the last para "We are happy to discuss the issue with Mr Prochaska and have asked him to contact us so we can find a solution"
Looks like motorbikes are exempted from permit requirements in most of Hackney.
So I expect a council would have a hard time complaining if they parked perpendicular to the road at the end of a bay (per requirements for motorbike).
Though I suspect it would then be a pain to secure the bike (Plus some idiot would drive into it...)
I try not to park my motorbike on the street. Careless car drivers knock motorbikes over all the time. Theny the drive off. The repairs add up, believe me.
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