Anne-Marie Trevelyan, MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed, remained in Westminster on Friday to lend her support to her colleague Simon Hoare MP’s Bill to restrict parking on pavements.
Anne-Marie is an official champion of the Bill, which has the support of Guide Dogs and the RNIB, and aims to ban parking on pavements, which poses huge dangers not only to the elderly and those with young children, but to the blind and partially-sighted, who are often forced to walk into the road to pass by.
Mrs Trevelyan spoke in the debate on Friday and raised the particular problems associated with ancient towns such as Berwick and Alnwick, where streets are narrow and often cobbled, making navigation even more difficult for those with visual impairments.
Anne-Marie said : ”I am delighted to have lent my support to the Bill. I appreciate that parking spaces are often scarce, but when people park on pavements, they are adding to the danger already faced by those with visual impairments. I was inundated with emails from constituents encouraging me to support the Bill and I was very happy to do so.”
The Minister for Roads, Andrew Jones MP, pledged to convene a round table in the new year for the Government to seek solutions with Councils to tackle the problem.
You can find out more about the problems of pavement parking by clicking HERE.