blocking driveway

Car_54

CardinalWolsey wrote: »

The SORN'd car isn't technically entering the highway in this scenario though, otherwise it would only be legal to have a SORN'd car on the back of a tow truck if the car was being taken to a pre-booked MOT test. Blocking the tow truck from reversing on to the drive to hoist the SORN'd car is not in itself an offence, however if the tow truck was on the drive hoisting the SORN'd car, and in the meantime somebody parked and blocked the driveway preventing the tow truck from leaving, that would be an offence.

Really? It's will fully obstructing part of the road which the tow truck driver has a perfect right to use.

Nearly_Old

unholyangel wrote: »

Do you have any source you can cite to back that up or is it just your personal opinion?

The most quoted comment if you Google "a car is blocking my drive what can i do" is:


But what are you actually allowed to do to the offending vehicle? Worryingly little, it turns out.


"The first step with any anti-social parking problem is to contact your local authority or the police; however there is little the law can do to support home owners – even if a car blocks your driveway," said Charlotte Dixon, solicitor at DAS Law.


"The Highway Code can only help if the parked car is causing an obstruction to the road but not in relation to private land."


Quote:

(1)If a person, without lawful authority or excuse, in any way wilfully obstructs the free passage along a highway he is guilty of an offence


Personally if I had been drafting this I would have used the words "use of the highway" instead of "passage along a highway" as this would then have covered all possible scenarios . Various cases, quoted on line and mainly dealing with obstruction due to the presence of protesters, refer to "passing" and "re-passing". This reinforces the argument that "free passage" only refers to traffic (in all its forms) moving along the highway.


Locally the police appear to take the view that as long as the movement of emergency vehicles, buses, etc is not affected then there is no obstruction. Parking across a dropped kerb is a different issue and that is more likely to be dealt by the local authority.

AndyMc.....

Nearly_Old wrote: »

The most quoted comment if you Google "a car is blocking my drive what can i do" is:


But what are you actually allowed to do to the offending vehicle? Worryingly little, it turns out.


"The first step with any anti-social parking problem is to contact your local authority or the police; however there is little the law can do to support home owners – even if a car blocks your driveway," said Charlotte Dixon, solicitor at DAS Law.


"The Highway Code can only help if the parked car is causing an obstruction to the road but not in relation to private land."


Quote:

(1)If a person, without lawful authority or excuse, in any way wilfully obstructs the free passage along a highway he is guilty of an offence


Personally if I had been drafting this I would have used the words "use of the highway" instead of "passage along a highway" as this would then have covered all possible scenarios . Various cases, quoted on line and mainly dealing with obstruction due to the presence of protesters, refer to "passing" and "re-passing". This reinforces the argument that "free passage" only refers to traffic (in all its forms) moving along the highway.


Locally the police appear to take the view that as long as the movement of emergency vehicles, buses, etc is not affected then there is no obstruction. Parking across a dropped kerb is a different issue and that is more likely to be dealt by the local authority.

So blocking free passage of the highway is an offence.

The OP's passage onto the highway is prevented and therefore it's an offence.

Nearly_Old

AndyMc..... wrote: »

So blocking free passage of the highway is an offence.

The OP's passage onto the highway is prevented and therefore it's an offence.

It arguably should be an offience but under the current interpretation from the case law available on line of the statement of "free passage along the highway" it is not generally being seen as an offence. All the cases refer to passing and re-passing; i.e. traffic already travelling along the highway. All searches in respect of a private access on to the highway being blocked state that this is not an offence but may be covered by local authority restrictions.


Perhaps others may be able to find an actual case that has resulted in prosecution for obstruction of a private access.

AndyMc.....

Nearly_Old wrote: »

It arguably should be an offience but under the current interpretation from the case law available on line of the statement of "free passage along the highway" it is not generally being seen as an offence. All the cases refer to passing and re-passing; i.e. traffic already travelling along the highway. All searches in respect of a private access on to the highway being blocked state that this is not an offence but may be covered by local authority restrictions.


Perhaps others may be able to find an actual case that has resulted in prosecution for obstruction of a private access.

Yet again you're wrong.


Regulation 103 of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 creates the offence of unnecessary obstruction. No person in charge of a motor vehicle or trailer shall cause or permit the vehicle to stand on a road so as to cause any unnecessary obstruction of the road.

Agricolae

unholyangel wrote: »

Well obviously, thats why I phrased it as I did rather than saying motor vehicles or vehicles - because road users includes pedestrians.

ETA: You seem to have missed the distinction I was making - that its an offence not just to obstruct passage to road users currently on that highway, but also any road users who wish to use that highway.

I thought this was an interesting question actually. The Highways Act 1980 which has been quoted in this thread does seem to me to refer specifically to blocking the carriageway or the pavement for traffic passing along it. It doesn't seem to cover preventing access to the highway from private land. Nearly Old has noticed this rather fine distinction.

The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 appear to be a little more suggestive that blocking a driveway is an offence:

No person in charge of a motor vehicle or trailer shall cause or permit the vehicle to stand on a road so as to cause any unnecessary obstruction of the road.

That seems to be a wider definition of obstruction which would include obstructing access to the road as well as impeding movement along it. I think my advice to the OP is that yes, blocking the driveway is a breach of the relevant regulations if the obstruction is an unnecessary one and if it's an actual obstruction.

If the OP has no intention of using the vehicle then parking across his driveway is not an actual obstruction, it's just a potential one. It would obviously become an actual obstruction if the OP was going to use his car.

Nearly_Old

AndyMc..... wrote: »

Yet again you're wrong. In your opinion


Regulation 103 of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 creates the offence of unnecessary obstruction. No person in charge of a motor vehicle or trailer shall cause or permit the vehicle to stand on a road so as to cause any unnecessary obstruction of the road.

Regulation 103 covers any unnecessary obstruction of the road. Our local police have previously taken the view that if the actual road is not obstructed then there is no offence but some police forces may take a different view.


In effect each person has an opinion and it would be useful if someone was able to post link/link(s) to actual legal cases to substantiate that this covers private driveway accesses to the highway.

unholyangel

Nearly_Old wrote: »

The most quoted comment if you Google "a car is blocking my drive what can i do" is:


But what are you actually allowed to do to the offending vehicle? Worryingly little, it turns out.


"The first step with any anti-social parking problem is to contact your local authority or the police; however there is little the law can do to support home owners – even if a car blocks your driveway," said Charlotte Dixon, solicitor at DAS Law.


"The Highway Code can only help if the parked car is causing an obstruction to the road but not in relation to private land."


Quote:

(1)If a person, without lawful authority or excuse, in any way wilfully obstructs the free passage along a highway he is guilty of an offence


Personally if I had been drafting this I would have used the words "use of the highway" instead of "passage along a highway" as this would then have covered all possible scenarios . Various cases, quoted on line and mainly dealing with obstruction due to the presence of protesters, refer to "passing" and "re-passing". This reinforces the argument that "free passage" only refers to traffic (in all its forms) moving along the highway.


Locally the police appear to take the view that as long as the movement of emergency vehicles, buses, etc is not affected then there is no obstruction. Parking across a dropped kerb is a different issue and that is more likely to be dealt by the local authority.

The same law firm you're quoting there gives this advice (which seems to have been misunderstood by the reporter and then repeated by a couple of local newpapers):

What if someone else parks in my driveway?
If a vehicle is parked on your driveway without your permission, they are trespassing. As trespass is a civil and not criminal offence, the police will not always get involved. At most, they may send an officer to try and determine the owner of the vehicle and ask them to move it.

Can I block their car in?
If someone has parked on your driveway and you were to block them in, your vehicle may be causing an obstruction to the public highway and this is a criminal offence. So the owner of the vehicle could call the police.

Clear now? If there is a vehicle belonging to someone else on your driveway, it is a civil trespass. If however there is a vehicle on the public road blocking your driveway then it is a criminal offence.

AndyMc.....

Nearly_Old wrote: »

It arguably should be an offience but under the current interpretation from the case law available on line of the statement of "free passage along the highway" it is not generally being seen as an offence. All the cases refer to passing and re-passing; i.e. traffic already travelling along the highway. All searches in respect of a private access on to the highway being blocked state that this is not an offence but may be covered by local authority restrictions.


Perhaps others may be able to find an actual case that has resulted in prosecution for obstruction of a private access.

Maybe you could post something to back up your claims?

Nearly_Old

unholyangel wrote: »

Clear now? If there is a vehicle belonging to someone else on your driveway, it is a civil trespass. If however there is a vehicle on the public road blocking your driveway then it is a criminal offence.

I think that you are reading something into the following that is not actually written:

Can I block their car in?


If someone has parked on your driveway and you were to block them in, your vehicle may be causing an obstruction to the public highway and this is a criminal offence. So the owner of the vehicle could call the police.

"your vehicle may be causing an obstruction to the public highway" - this is true for everytime any vehicle parks on the public highway, and generally irrespective of the reason why they have parked in that particular location.

The offence is "obstructing free passage of the highway" so as long as traffic of all types is free to pass along the highway then the parked vehicle is not commiting an offence. It does not say anything about obstructing traffic not on the public highway.