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Is Parking on Verges Legal?
Page 96
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By a Barrister
Grass Verges Not Belonging to Roadside Properties are Part of the Highway and May be Used by Vehicles
ALL drivers should be aware of the danger of parking a vehicle on a main road, and every sensible driver will do his best to draw right off . the metalled surface of the highway. Lorry drivers, however, know the difficulty of getting a really large vehicle right off the road, and where the vehicle is articulated or pulling a four-wheeled trailer, the task may well be impossible.
A few of our main trunk highways have specially constructed lay-bys, and in other places there may be openings where road-making material may be dumped, which may serve the purpose. Elsewhere there are, of course, grass verges of varying unevenness and width, but the danger of unseen ditches and soft ground often prevents their use for parking.
Unknown Facts
A recent decision of the High Court, in the case of Rogers v. The Ministry of Transport and Kent County Council, has not only highlighted the difficulties attending roadside parking, but has drawn attention to some generally unknown legal aspects of the matter. The facts were, that at a café on highway A2—the main London, Canterbury and Dover road—which was regularly used by heavy-vehicle drivers, there was no regular parking space other than the grass verge of the road, but there was, in addition, a footpath farming part of this verge. Drivels had been in the habit of driving off the metalled surface on to this grass verge and parking there, and naturally, with the constant use of heavy vehicles, it was not long before the grass verge had, to all intents and purposes, disappeared and could not be distinguished from the roads. '
Accordingly, the county council and the Minister of Transport, who was the superior authority responsible for the road as it was one of those classed as a trunk road under the Trunk Roads Acts, 1936 and 1946, decided that a large area should be levelled off with the road, and that the footpath, which had virtually ceased to exist, should be remade so as to take a sweep round this levelled area, and should be protected by a high kerbstone. All this the Minister purported to do by reason of his inherited powers under the Highway Act 1864, to make "improvements," which might include such .matters as "the widening of any road and the levelling of roads."
' Application for Injunction
At this stage, the plaintiff in the case, who owned residential property adjoining the levelled-off area and abutting on the highway, and who had, perhaps justifiably, felt aggrieved at the number of heavy vehicles which parked on the grass verge almost outside her door, brought the action to obtain an injunction to restrain both defendants from constructing a car park at that place, or authorizing the use of any part of the verge as a parking place. Her contention, in law, was that there was no authority in the Minister under the Highway Act, or any other Act, to construct car parks beside highways and that, in fact, was what he was obviously doing.
The judgment of Lord Goddard, however, in refusing the plaintiff's application for an injunction, drew attention to a curious point in the law, which is certainly c38 not generally appreciated. Where a highway has grass verges—and one must here add, "which quite obviously do not belong to the roadside properties," e.g., where these latter are clearly marked with a fence or hedge— then these grass verges are as much a part of the highway as is the metalled surface of the road itself.
If there is a recognized footpath running along this verge then, of course, this is reserved for pedestrians and it will be an offence under the Highway Acts for a vehicle to park an the path itself, or drive along it. _But the rest of the verge, or, where there is no footpath marked out, the whole of the verge, is, in fact, a part of the highway itself.
Drive on Verges
Just conceive what this means. In effect, if one wished to do so and the suspension of one's vehicle were good enough, one could legally drive from London to Dover on the grass verge. But most important of ail, of course, is that it means that the grass verge is usable by vehicles as a legal parking place, provided one does not park on any footpath provided for pedestrians, and provided also that one does not stop in a place where the mere presence of a stationary vehicle would create an obstruction. Take care, also, that the verge really is a highway verge and not part of someone's front lawn. Generally the verges are easily recognizable as, such.
In the case in question, Lord Goddard held that the grass verges were all part of the highway and that a lorry driver was entitled to drive on them if he pleased; that the Minister had not gone beyond his powers in " improving " the highway at this point, even though what resulted was in fact something suspiciously like a lay-by, and that the plaintiff had no remedy in the circumstances.
On Open Land An interesting, and at this time of the year not untopical, historical survival may perhaps be mentioned here as an after-thought to this decision. Where a highway passes through open and unenclosed land, users of the highway may, when the road has become impassable through floods, have a right to deviate on to the adjoining land, even where this is 'cultivated. The origins of this right have been lost, and although the right is known to exist and has on many occasions been taken advantage of, it is still uncertain whether it is an absolute right or one restricted to places where it is provable only by custom.
There is no direct case on the point in this country, although in both Australia and New Zealand it has been held to be an absolute right on the part of any highway user. It matters not what the cause of obstruction may be, but flooding is an obvious example, and deep snowdrifts or fallen trees are other winter hazards that could reasonably be included.
It is suggested that where an old highway becomes naturally flooded through being alongside a river or being otherwise low-lying, then it is highly probable that the same thing has happened from time to time for centuries past and that, equally, the custom to make the deviation has probably existed from time immemorial.