Obstructed Verges

[Guest]

Local Cumbrian farmers have taken to obstructing roadside verges with bales of hay and clogs of stone. This has the effect of preventing parking on those verges and pushing the parking to fewer spots. The Cumbrian Police, being not much more than a local militia have allowed the farmers to get away with it.

Can anyone point me the right direction in terms of taking legal action to force the police to do their job / or taking the farmers to court. Is this civil or criminal? What's the process?????

[des8]

Presumably the farmers are blocking the verges (obstructing the highway) to prevent visitors parking on the verges (obstructing the highway).

Doubt you'll get a sympathetic hearing as verges are not for parking on, and it can be considered as nuisance parking and vehicles towed by police.
The locals doubtlessly prefer bales of hay or rocks than vehicles churning up verges

[Aged William]

Presumably the farmers are blocking the verges (obstructing the highway) to prevent visitors parking on the verges (obstructing the highway).

Not necessarily: a verge is only part of a road if it is maintained at public expense.

It could be private property and the landowner is using the bales to lawfully prevent trespassers from entering on to his land.

[des8]

Beg to differ Aged William .
The extent of the highway is normally hedge-to-hedge, even if not maintained at public expense.

[Aged William]

The point I was trying to make (albeit not clearly, obviously) is that not all verges are automatically classified as highways, and not all highways are automatically classified as roads.

I have recently been involved with a case of an unlicensed vehicle (ie SORN) allegedly causing an obstruction by being parked on a verge. As the verge was accepted as not being a highway there was no offence under the Highways Act 1980, and as it was not a highway it was therefore not a road so no offence under the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994.

Also, some local authorities have bylaws prohibiting mechanically propelled vehicles from entering on to particular verges, although they may still be highways that can be used by pedestrians, horses etc. Certain obstacles - bollards, bales etc - may be used to prevent such vehicles from entering unlawfully on to the land as long as they do not obstruct any authorised users of the highway.

As with everything in law, a definitive answer hinges on the facts; which are absent from the OP.