Parking next to a dropped kerb
What is a dropped kerb?
A dropped kerb, or dropped footway, is where the kerb has been lowered to the level of the road:
- to help people cross the road, including wheelchair and pushchair users,
- to let cyclists on and off the road, or
- to let vehicles cross the pavement, for example to a driveway.
The same applies where the road has been raised to the level of the pavement for the same purposes, such as at a raised crossing point.
Parking across a dropped kerb blocks driveways and crossing points and can force people with wheelchairs, pushchairs or visual impairments into the road.
The rule
Under section 86 of the Traffic Management Act 2004, you must not park on the road next to a dropped kerb or a raised section of road. The rule applies in England and Wales wherever the council has a "special enforcement area", which covers most places where the council enforces parking, including all of London. No traffic order is needed, and there may be no yellow lines. Some councils paint an advisory white line across a dropped kerb. The Welsh Government's guidance says the ban must be shown with signs or road markings in Wales, and that a Welsh council should not act against a vehicle parked outside a home unless the occupier asks it to.
Councils enforce it with contravention code 27 (dropped kerb) or 28 (raised road), both higher level penalties. In England these contraventions cannot be enforced by camera alone: a civil enforcement officer issues the PCN, which can be posted only if someone prevented the officer from issuing it or the vehicle was driven away before the officer finished. Blue Badge holders are not exempt.
The exceptions
You can park next to a dropped kerb:
- In a marked parking bay, or anywhere else parking is specifically allowed, if the vehicle is wholly within it.
- Outside a home, if you live there or have the occupier's permission, as long as the permission was not paid for. This does not apply to a shared driveway.
- For the fire brigade, police or ambulance services, or responding to an emergency at the request of an NHS ambulance service.
- To deliver or collect goods, or to load or unload, if it can't reasonably be done any other way, for no longer than necessary and no more than 20 minutes.
- For building works, council waste collection, clearing an obstruction, or road or utility works, if the vehicle can't be used without parking there, for no longer than necessary.
Stopping briefly to let passengers get in or out, or because you are held up by circumstances you can't control or to avoid an accident, is not parking.
Even where you are allowed to park outside your own home, the Highway Code asks drivers not to park where the kerb has been lowered to help wheelchair users, or in front of an entrance to a property.
Double parking
Section 85 of the same Act bans double parking in the same areas: you must not park with no part of your vehicle within 50 cm of the edge of the road, unless you are in a marked parking place. The same exceptions apply, except the one for homes. Councils use contravention code 26, a higher level penalty.
To challenge a penalty, see how to fight a dropped kerb or pavement parking penalty.
This page was checked against the law in England and Wales on 22 October 2026. It is general guidance, not legal advice: see the legal disclaimer.