Q My lorry was parked at a tyre depot, i loading up
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tyres to go for remoulding. Several cars passed by mounting their offside wheels on the pavement.
Eventually, a car came along and the owner said that I would have to move to let him pass. I pointed out to him that by then about a dozen cars had gone past so perhaps he could do the same if he carefully mounted the pavement.
He said that I was causing an obstruction and r I did not move he would call the police. I did move but told him that I thought he was being unreasonable.
I had to go round the block and come back to the same place to reload my spare wheel.
Had he (he said he was a solicitor) enough grounds to make me move and also have the police the power to compel me to have moved before I finished loading? I was in a side street, not in the main through road.
A It is plain that you were causing an obstruction in the eyes of the law when loading in the way you describe. If the police had come to the scene they could have insisted that you should move the lorry and if you refused to do so, they could have moved it themselves. If you tried to prevent them from moving it, then you could have been charged with obstructing the police as well as the ordinary vehicle obstruction charge.
If your solicitor friend had driven on the footpath he would have committed an offence under Section 72 of the Highway Act 1835, a very old Act but one which is still operative.
The real culprits in this case were, perhaps, the drivers of the parked cars because their vehicles prevented you from pulling in close to the premises from which you wished to load. No doubt you are constantly meeting this problem; there is little that can be done about it.