Driveways and new trespassing law

[GameofPhones]

Apparently it is now a trespassing offence to repeatedly turn in someone else's driveway. Trespassing law was widened in 2022.

I discovered this when wondering if my neighbour's visitors, repeatedly parking in the shared driveway and being abusive when challenged, were trespassing. I'm still looking into this, but thought others might like to know about the new law as driveway abuse is often complained about on here.

I had no idea this was trespassing.
That said, surely if you need to use someone’s drive to turn you are driving a car too big for you.
I’ve never had a car I couldn’t turn in the road, and I’ve had a couple of long estate cars over the years.

Weird. You can be taken to court for a three point turn but nothing happens if someone parks their car on it without permission. Surely that's a "worse" offence.

Hmm I read the article quickly and thought Select Van Leasing was someone's (Dutch) name. I now suspect this article is a disguised ad for a van leasing firm. The comments suggest the report is exaggerated. More research needed, sorry.

They are both a civil offence I think. So you could bring a private prosecution against them.

Trespass is a tort. No one can be prosecuted. The driveway owner can claim compensation (damages) for any damage (zero) or get an injunction against a specific individual to stop it happening again, but only at the judge's discretion (good luck), and at a cost of a few thousand.

'Trespassers can now be prosecuted', as I linked above https://www.hilldickinson.com/insights/articles/trespassers-can-now-be-prosecuted

This legislation was specifically designed as anti-Traveller legislation.

If you're just turning round then no, you are not going to be prosecuted and no, it's not a criminal offence.

"When will an offence under the PCSAC be made out?

An offence will be committed under the PCSCA, if a person over the age of 18:

• resides or intends to reside on land in or with a vehicle (including a caravan) without consent; and
• fails to leave and/or remove their property (or re-enters the land) as soon as reasonably practicable when asked to do so; and has caused, or is likely to cause ‘significant’: damage to land/property/the environment; disruption to the use of land/supply of utilities; and/or distress via ‘offensive conduct’, such as the use of threatening words or behaviour."

But you did not read the article!

When will an offence under the PCSAC be made out?
An offence will be committed under the PCSCA, if a person over the age of 18:

• resides or intends to reside on land in or with a vehicle (including a caravan) without consent;

Unless they actually move into your driveway rather than doing a quick U-turn then you can forget about prosecution.

Ah yes, I missed the bit about intending to reside.