Living Streets and Pavement Clutter

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A useful possible NEA topic would be to explore the impact of pavement clutter in urban areas, particularly perhaps in High Street or city centre areas. This could also be a useful focus for young people to explore, and I may add this to my usual exploration of the High Street with Year 7 early in the new academic year.


The charity Living Streets has started the Cut the Clutter campaign to try to reduce the amount of pavement clutter - quite apart from all the existing street furniture. 

Badly parked cars are the main culprits of course, although they tend to be restricted in city centres due to other restrictions. That doesn't stop rental e-bikes and scooters from being dumped on pavements. The growth in ownership of electric vehicles has also led to charging cables being run across pavements, or chargers taking up space. Advertising signage, particularly those with display screens are another menace, as well as guzzling energy and therefore having a large carbon footprint.

There are a number of things which encroach on pavement space, which can be an issue for all pedestrians, but particularly those with mobility or vision impairment.

Living Streets has shared resources on this before, and an email to mailing list subscribers earlier this week reminded me of this topic. It would make a useful topic for some fieldwork, so I am going to work up something for my Year 7 groups for the first couple of weeks of the new term - I've started to put together the resources.

Living Streets is calling for local authorities to prioritise clearing footways and pavements through measures including (but not limited to):
  • banning all A-board advertising on the pavement
  • putting in place plans and budget to remove excess or unused street furniture (eg signs and poles, guard rail and utility boxes or phone boxes)
  • providing guidance to businesses using pavement space for outdoor entertainment that they must maintain a 1.5m pavement width
  • ensuring maintenance of trees and hedges that encroach on pavements
  • making a commitment that EV charging points and cycle storage will only be placed on pavements where 1.5m clearance width for pedestrians can be maintained
  • Ensuring that rental e-scooter parking is placed on the carriageway, and not on pavements – there is no need to sacrifice pedestrian space in order to support micromobility.
The clutter produces issues for Guide Dog owners and others who are visually impaired.

Outdoor dining has proliferated since the pandemic and some of this occupies pavement space as well.


This provides an impetus to walk in urban (and rural) areas rather than rely on other forms of transport.


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