Parish Councils Act 1957

4 Power to provide parking places for bicycles and motorcycles

(1) Where for the purpose of relieving or preventing congestion of traffic or preserving local amenities it appears to a parish council to be necessary to provide within the parish suitable parking places for bicycles and motor-cycles, the parish council may provide and maintain such parking places in accordance with the provisions of this section, and for that purpose (or for the purpose of providing means of entrance to and egress from any parking place provided under this section) may—

(a) utilise and adapt any land purchased by the council for the purpose or appropriated for the purpose under subsection (2) of this section; or

(b) subject to the provisions of section five of this Act, adapt and by order authorise the use of any part of a road within the parish;

and the power under this subsection to provide and maintain parking places shall include power to provide and maintain structures for use as parking places.

(2) Notwithstanding anything in any other enactment, a parish council may, with the consent of the Minister of Housing and Local Government, appropriate for the purpose of providing a parking place under this section—

(a) any part of any recreation ground provided or maintained by the council under section eight of the Local Government Act, 1894;

(b) any part of any open space controlled or maintained by the council under the Open Spaces Act, 1906, other than a part which has been consecrated as a burial ground or in which burials have taken place;

(c) any part of any land provided by the council as a playing field or for any other purpose under section four of the Physical Training and Recreation Act, 1937:

Provided that any part so appropriated shall not exceed one-eighth of the total area of the recreation ground, open space or land concerned, or eight hundred square feet, whichever is the less.

(3) No order under subsection (1) of this section shall authorise the use of any part of a road as a parking place under this section so as unreasonably to prevent access to any premises adjoining the road, or the use of the road by any person entitled to use it, or so as to be a nuisance.

(4) Where a parish council propose to purchase or appropriate any land for the purposes of this section, or to make an order under this section authorising the use of any part of a road for those purposes, they shall, before carrying that proposal into effect.—

(a) cause a notice of the proposal (specifying the land to which it relates) to be published in at least one newspaper circulating within their parish, and a copy of the notice to be posted for not less than fourteen days on the land; and

(b) consider any objection which is sent to them in writing within such time (not being less than twenty-eight days) after the publication of the notice as may be specified therein, and give notice of their decision on the objection to the person by whom it was made;

and every notice under paragraph (b) of this subsection shall include notice of the right of appeal under subsection (5) of this section.

(5) If any person is aggrieved by any such decision as aforesaid, he may within twenty-one days after notice of the decision is given under subsection (4) of this section appeal therefrom by way of complaint to a magistrates' court, and the court may make such order in the matter as they consider reasonable; and where any person appeals under this subsection he shall give notice of the appeal and of the grounds thereof to the chairman of the parish council by which the decision was made, and nothing shall be done by the parish council to carry into effect the proposal to which that decision relates until the determination or abandonment of the appeal.

(6) A parish council may employ with or without remuneration such persons as may be necessary for the superintendence of parking places provided by the council under this section.

(7) A parish council may make byelaws (subject to the confirmation of the Secretary of State) as to the use of parking places provided under this section, and in particular as to the conditions upon which any such parking place may be used and as to the charges to be paid to the council in connection with the use of any parking place not being part of a road; and a copy of any byelaws made under this subsection shall be exhibited on or near every parking place to which they relate.

(8) A parish council may let for use as a parking place any parking place provided by them (not being part of a road) under this section; but (without prejudice to any power of a parish council under any other enactment to let a playing field or other land of which a parking place forms part) no single letting under this subsection shall be for a longer period than seven days.

(9) The exercise by a parish council of their powers under this section with respect to the use as a parking place of any part of a road shall not render them subject to any liability in respect of loss of or damage to any vehicle or the fittings or contents of any vehicle parked in such a parking place.

(10) Any order made under this section may be varied or revoked by any subsequent order made in the like manner.