Residents of a South Cumbrian street will have to remove plant pots from outside their front doors.
Westmorland & Furness Council told residents of Ann Street in Dalton-in-Furness in May that they would gave to be removed because they were illegal obstructions on the pavement.
Furious residents said the request came out of the blue and claimed the plant pots caused no impediment.
But the council said that it was required to investigate all reports made in relation to obstruction of the highway.
The issue was brought before the authority’s Furness locality board on Thursday, July 9.
A highways officer explained the thinking behind the decision.
He said that weed spraying contractors told the council that they were unable to access parts of Ann Street and the back street between it and Buccleuch Street because of a number of obstructions.
The council then sent enforcement letters to five properties on Ann Street and six properties on Buccleuch Street, asking them to move the obstructions on the highway.
The officer added: “It wasn’t a decision that we took lightly, there are mitigating circumstances we considered – Ann Street isn’t a through road, pedestrian footfall is low.”
But he said the biggest issue was that, with vehicles parking on the pavement alongside the plant pots, it restricted the pavement width from around 1.6m to 0.8m.
The officer added that there were also garden sheds and planters in the back street.
He added: “When you start having garden sheds placed in backstreets, it is an obstruction and unfortunately we have to serve notice.
“All we wanted today was to get a general consensus from the locality board – do you think it’s right that we do serve notice under the highways act or do you think it isn’t?”
Councillor Jane Murphy (Lab, Risedale and Roosecote) asked about the legality of cars being parked on the pavement.
The officer said it was a crime, but that the council had no powers to enforce against pavement parking. He said it would be a matter for the police.
Councillor Anne Burns (Lab, Old Barrow and Hindpool) said that while a lot of people on terraced streets did put plants outside their homes, this was a different kettle of fish.
She added: “You have got to look at accessibility for emergency vehicles, ambulances that have to get down there, or even if somebody goes down there who is disabled and trying to get out of a car.”
Cllr Burns called it sensible and said having garden sheds in the back road was ‘just ridiculous’.
Councillor Les Hall (Cons, Hawcoat and Newbarns) said he was 100 per cent behind officers.
Councillor Dave Taylor (Ind, Dalton South) asked if people could use their common sense, such as having smaller plant pots but not big ones and not putting up garden sheds.
But the officer said if it was an obstruction, they could not discriminate. He added: “We are reluctant to single out people – the person with the garden shed might say why are you taking action against me but not the person with the plant pot.”
Councillor Hazel Edwards (Reform, Hawcoat and Newbarns) asked if there was a bylaw in place for the area.
She added: “There are a lot of streets that have the same issue and we could do a blanket bylaw.”
The officer said there wasn’t, but he could look into it.
Councillors voted in favour of the action, nine votes to one.
Councillor Ben Shirley (Cons, Dalton North) suggested that highways could issue a last warning to say people were in breach of the Highways Act before proceeding to enforcement. The officer said he could take it away and consider it.
The committee moved that highways would look into this option of sending warning letters out before proceeding to enforcement action.
