What DfT’s January 2027 Pavement Parking Ticket Plan Means for Every Driver

• The Department for Transport told Parliament on 28 October 2026 that it plans secondary legislation in January 2027 so councils with civil parking enforcement powers can issue penalty charge notices for parking that unnecessarily obstructs the pavement.
• A second set of rules, to let councils ban pavement parking across a whole area, has no date, and the Department says its timetable has not been finalised.
• Until either set exists, the Highway Code bars pavement parking in London and Scotland and says drivers should not do it elsewhere unless signs permit.

The Date Is January, but the Ban Itself Is Still Waiting

Justin Madders, answering for the Department for Transport, put a month on pavement parking tickets in a written reply to Parliament on 28 October 2026. The Department plans to bring in secondary legislation in January 2027 so that local authorities with civil parking enforcement powers can issue penalty charge notices where a vehicle is parked in a way that unnecessarily obstructs the pavement. The reply gives a month, not a day.

Helen Maguire, the Liberal Democrat MP for Epsom and Ewell, tabled the question on 20 October and asked for an explicit timeline. A grouped question from her, number 36354, asked what additional enforcement powers the Department plans to give local authorities outside London, and the Department gave the same two paragraphs to both. The reply gave her one date and one gap. January 2027 covers tickets for obstruction. A separate instrument, which would let local transport authorities prohibit pavement parking across their areas with appropriate exemptions, has a timetable that the Department says has not yet been finalised.

January 2027 is a plan. No regulations have been made. Nobody can be ticketed under either set of rules today. The reply also gives no penalty charge amount, no list of councils and no meaning for the word “unnecessarily”, so any fine figure attached to this change has nothing in the reply behind it. January falls between eight and nine months after the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026 received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026, and roughly two to three months after the answer.

Two Sets of Rules, Not One

The first set is about tickets. Councils with civil parking enforcement powers already issue penalty charge notices for many parking contraventions, in place of the police, a system the Highway Code calls decriminalised parking enforcement. The January plan adds one more reason for a notice: a vehicle parked so that it unnecessarily obstructs the pavement. The test looks at what the parked car does to people using the footway. The reply does not say how a council should apply it to a car with two wheels on the kerb of a wide pavement, or to a bumper across a dropped kerb.

The second set is about bans. In January 2026 the Department said that councils would be able to restrict pavement parking across wider areas, instead of the previous approach where action is often limited to individual streets and needs lengthy, complex processes. The reply describes the new instrument as one that lets local transport authorities prohibit pavement parking across their areas, and that description matches the power in Schedule 32 to the Act. The reply attaches appropriate exemptions to that ban. The Department has not said what they will be.

The reply does not name the legal power the January instrument will use, and it does not say where the tickets would apply. Schedule 32 gives its power to English local transport authorities. Rule 244 already treats London and Scotland differently from everywhere else, so the instrument’s reach is the first thing to read when it appears.

The area-wide route is the power set out in our report on the new council powers to ban pavement parking, which no council can use until the second set of rules is made.

What Schedule 32 Lets Ministers Build

Section 68 of the Act says Schedule 32 makes provision about the prohibition of parking of motor vehicles on footways and verges. Paragraph 1 sets the limits. The Secretary of State can make regulations giving each English local transport authority the power to impose a prohibition on parking on the footways and verges of the relevant highways in its area. The prohibition cannot reach any place outside a civil enforcement area for parking contraventions under Part 2 of Schedule 8 to the Traffic Management Act 2004. The regulations are subject to the affirmative procedure.

The schedule then lists what the regulations can contain. They can set the process for imposing a prohibition and how to publicise it (paragraph 2). They can exclude kinds of highway, including parts that an Act or secondary legislation designates as places where parking is permitted, and they can give a council the power to exclude particular roads or parts of its area, with conditions attached (paragraph 3). They can exclude descriptions of vehicles, or vehicles used or parked for particular purposes or in particular circumstances (paragraph 4). They can regulate the traffic signs that go with a prohibition and require councils and traffic authorities to cooperate (paragraph 5). They can create defences to a contravention (paragraph 6), require councils to consult, and give the Secretary of State power to issue guidance that councils must have regard to (paragraph 7).

Paragraph 8 is the enforcement hook. It amends Schedule 7 to the Traffic Management Act 2004 so that, outside Greater London, a vehicle parked in breach of a prohibition imposed under the regulations is a parking contravention. That is the step that makes a council prohibition something a council can ticket. Paragraph 9 allows the regulations to repeal an Act to the extent that it prohibits parking on footways and verges outside Greater London. Paragraph 10 applies the schedule to Crown vehicles, including those used by a Minister or a government department.

Two definitions in paragraph 11 reach further than most drivers expect. “Parking” includes stopping, unless the regulations define it differently under paragraph 1. A “verge” is any part of a relevant highway that is not a carriageway, footway or cycle track, so the strip of highway beside the road could fall inside the same prohibition as the pavement. A relevant highway is one maintainable at the public expense, and special roads are left out.

Commencement is narrow. Section 68 and every paragraph of Schedule 32 are in force at Royal Assent for specified purposes, and section 108(1)(c) brings in provisions so far as they confer the power to make secondary legislation. The rest of the Act comes into force on days the Secretary of State appoints by regulations (section 108(6)). The Secretary of State holds the power to make the parking regulations. None has been made, so no council holds a prohibition power and nothing in Schedule 32 can be enforced.

What the Law Says Today

The Highway Code states the current position. Rule 244 says drivers must not park partially or wholly on the pavement in London or Scotland, with exceptions allowed in limited circumstances. Beyond those two the rule reads: “You should not park partially or wholly on the pavement elsewhere unless signs permit it.” The same rule says pavement parking can obstruct and seriously inconvenience pedestrians, people in wheelchairs or with visual impairments and people with prams or pushchairs.

Three more rules in the same section cover related ground. Rule 242 says: “You MUST NOT leave your vehicle or trailer in a dangerous position or where it causes any unnecessary obstruction of the road.” Rule 243 tells drivers not to park where the kerb has been lowered to help wheelchair users and powered mobility vehicles, or in front of an entrance to a property. Rule 246 bars goods vehicles over 7.5 tonnes from a verge or pavement without police permission, with an exception for loading and unloading as long as the driver stays with the vehicle.

Outside London and Scotland, a council that wants a pavement clear has had to work street by street. The release of 8 January 2026 describes that as the previous approach, limited to individual streets and slow to complete.

The Department’s reasons are on the record. Lilian Greenwood, the Local Transport Minister, said on 8 January 2026: “Clear pavements are essential for people to move around safely and independently, whether that’s a parent with a pushchair, someone using a wheelchair, or a blind or partially sighted person.” Andrew Lennox, chief executive of Guide Dogs, said the same day: “Cars blocking pavements are a nuisance for everyone, but especially dangerous for people with sight loss, who can be forced into the road with traffic they can’t see.”

Who the Exemptions Could Protect

The word the Department repeats is exemptions. The January 2026 release says local leaders will keep flexibility where they judge pavement parking still acceptable. Schedule 32 supplies the tools: excluded roads, areas, vehicles and uses, plus defences.

Rod Dennis, the RAC’s Senior Policy Officer, gave the motorists’ view in January 2026. The RAC wants councils able to stop pavement parking where it causes problems, and wants drivers still permitted to park partly on the pavement where that keeps traffic flowing and inconveniences nobody. Guide Dogs, led by Andrew Lennox, wants the changes introduced quickly and consistently enforced. The Act leaves the exemption list to the regulations, and the regulations do not exist.

The Department promised guidance for councils later in 2026, and the year has two months left.

What to Do Before January

Check the signs first. Outside London and Scotland, rule 244 says not to park on the pavement unless signs permit it. If no sign says so, treat the pavement as off limits.

Find out whether the council that covers the street holds civil parking enforcement powers. The Highway Code says the local traffic authority takes responsibility for enforcing many parking contraventions in place of the police, and points drivers to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal outside London and London Tribunals inside it for details. The January plan covers councils with those powers, and the council’s parking pages will say whether yours is one. Our report on challenging a penalty charge notice sets out the steps.

Leave the amount alone until the instrument appears. Neither the reply nor the Act sets a penalty charge, and a figure quoted before the regulations exist is a guess.

Change the habit that costs nothing to change. Rule 239 says to use off-street parking areas or marked bays wherever possible. A driver who mounts the kerb on a narrow road faces no ticket under the January plan today, and the plan’s test of unnecessary obstruction is undefined. The safer course is a space with all four wheels on the carriageway, or a different street.

Watch for three events: the statutory instrument for the January tickets, the guidance the Department promised for 2026, and a timetable for the area-wide regulations. Until the first of those exists, a council has nothing new to enforce.

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