ANY attempt to put a complete ban on drivers parking on pavements will inevitably be hugely controversial, which is partly why it has never happened.

Oxford City Council’s short discussion on the subject this week demonstrated some of the pitfalls perfectly.

Firstly, the councillor proposing to back a ban – with all the best intentions to help her walking constituents – ended up using emotive language which a fellow councillor said sounded ‘angry’.

Roz Smith said that anyone in a wheelchair or pushing a pram down certain pavements in her Headington ward faced a ‘slalom’ between cars that were parked ‘haphazardly’ over kerbs.

Councillor Tom Hayes then warned that using language like that risked demonising all drivers, when many were innocently just trying to make more room for motorists on crowded roads.

This little discussion is obviously just the tip of the iceberg.

Yes, it is undoubtedly true that drivers parking on pavements causes problems for some pedestrians, and Oxford is as bad as anywhere in this regard: with our many narrow, historic streets, high population density, and high numbers of cyclists, all these conversations inevitably get people hot under the collar.

If drivers were completely banned from doing it then it would make a lot of people's live easier, but it would also inevitably make a lot of other people's lives more difficult – not least emergency service vehicle drivers who already struggle to get through rows of parked cars in residential areas around the county.

The whole issue also naturally dovetails with wider discussions about vehicle use and pollution.

It would be naive in the extreme to think this is a simple problem with a simple solution.

We applaud our city councillors for their motives, but we also look forward to some extremely careful and detailed thinking by all authorities involved before any new law is even drafted.