Home / Advice / Scotland dropped-kerb ticket — the kerb was not dropped for pedestrians or cyclists to cross (section 56(1))

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Scotland dropped-kerb ticket — the kerb was not dropped for pedestrians or cyclists to cross (section 56(1))

The Scottish dropped-footway ban only bites where the pavement was lowered, or the road raised, for the purpose of helping pedestrians or cyclists cross the road. If the dropped section plainly serves something else, such as a loading area or a bus-stop build-out, this argument asks the council to state the purpose and produce the record it relies on.

Legal basis

Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 section 56(1): "A person must not park a motor vehicle on a carriageway adjacent to a footway where, for the purpose of assisting pedestrians or cyclists to cross the carriageway— (a) the footway has been lowered to meet the level of the carriageway, or (b) the carriageway has been raised to meet the level of the footway." Parking Prohibitions (Enforcement and Accounts) (Scotland) Regulations 2023 (S.S.I. 2023/373) regulation 10(4)(a). Read at legislation.gov.uk (latest available text) on 2026-09-09.

How to identify this in your case

Use this only if you can see, describe and photograph what the dropped section actually serves, and it is plainly not a crossing point. Do not rely on there being no tactile paving or no matching dropped kerb opposite: neither settles it. A dropped section giving access to a cycle track may be exactly one that helps cyclists cross, so do not use this for those.

Sample appeal wording

Before you send this

Deadline. A late submission can be turned down without your argument being read. Check your notice for the deadline and how it is counted.
Paying may end it. Paying can count as accepting the notice and can close a challenge already under way. Part-paying or acknowledging an old debt can also revive a time limit that had expired.
The amount can change. Check what happens to the sum if you challenge — it may be held, re-offered lower, or keep rising, and fees or enforcement can continue meanwhile.
Use the official route. Use the method, recipient and form your notice specifies, with any reference, evidence and signature it asks for. Sent elsewhere, it may not count.
Only say what is true. Do not copy any statement of fact unless it is true for you, and check the legal point still applies. Delete what does not fit. It may be treated as your statement.
Careful what you volunteer. Avoid unnecessary admissions — naming the driver or accepting responsibility can remove arguments. But answer anything you are legally required to answer, and do include the evidence your ground needs.
Keep the record. Keep what you sent, the attachments, any receipt, and the reply. Note the next deadline.

Sample wording to adapt and send yourself — it may not fit your notice or the stage you are at. Replace the bracketed prompts with your own details; leave any case citation as it is.

I make representations under regulation 10(1) of the Parking Prohibitions (Enforcement and Accounts) (Scotland) Regulations 2023 on the ground in regulation 10(4)(a) that the alleged contravention did not occur. The prohibition in section 56(1) of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 applies only where the footway has been lowered, or the carriageway raised, "for the purpose of assisting pedestrians or cyclists to cross the carriageway". The lowered section at [LOCATION] serves [WHAT IT SERVES]; photographs are attached. The authority is asked to state the purpose for which the footway was lowered [or the carriageway raised] at that point and to produce the record on which it relies for treating that purpose as assisting pedestrians or cyclists to cross. If the authority holds no such evidence, I ask that the enforcement notice be cancelled under regulation 11(2).

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Sources

Transport (Scotland) Act 2019, section 56(1)
Parking Prohibitions (Enforcement and Accounts) (Scotland) Regulations 2023 (S.S.I. 2023/373), regulation 10(4)(a)