Leeming Bar Parking Ban – Game Over

Leeming Bar Parking Ban – Game Over

Guest Author ANDY STRANGEWAY wraps up six months of campaigning to blow away Hambleton District Council’s deeply flawed Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) at Leeming Bar. Coming soon to a PSPO near you!

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I can now confirm that it is ‘Game Over’ for the Leeming Bar Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) which bans remaining overnight in any parked vehicles, including an HGV or campervan.

Steven Lister, Director of Leisure & Communities, HDC

I can reveal that a report to Hambleton District Council (HDC) Cabinet on 15 January 2019 states: 

“5.4  Any signage related to the Public Space Protection Order does not fall within permitted signage within the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016; therefore all associated signage will have to be located on land not in control of the Highway Authority for which planning permission may therefore be required.”

I fully agree with this statement.

Please see Cabinet Report – 150119 – Public Space Protection Orders (click on the link to read the full report). I recommended everyone download a copy of this.

The report confirms my stated position that HDC cannot have a PSPO on the Highway as  “Any signage related to the Public Space Protection Order does not fall within permitted signage within the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016”.

If there is no signage on the Highway there can be no restriction on the Highway. This includes any restriction detailed in a PSPO. Any signage not on the Highway can not be applied to the Highway. Thus the PSPO is unenforceable on the Highway.

With the above in mind, I have requested the intervention of Paul Staines, Director of Environment, HDC, a.k.a. Good Cop Director, to resolve the Leeming Bar PSPO fiasco, as it was he who wrote the Cabinet Report – 150119 – Public Space Protection Orders.

The person responsible for the fiasco is Steven Lister, Director of Leisure & Communities, HDC, a.k.a. Bad Cop Director. The position of Steven Lister is now untenable because, as the contact person for the report, he has knowingly wasted thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ resources.

The PSPO must now be revoked and not reintroduced. All signage that serves no purpose other than to intimidate must also be removed with immediate effect.