I’VE just worked out why Americans call pavements ‘sidewalks’.

Whenever I go for a walk around the streets of Taunton, you can bet your bottom dollar I’ll harangue some poor, unsuspecting stranger unfortunate enough to bump into me.

"It's a disgrace. Something's got to be done about it. Why do they allow it?" I scream my well-rehearsed rant.

But I’m hardly out of first gear fuming when my targets invariably politely agree before scurrying off, muttering something about urgent business to attend to.

So, what is it that drives me to such volcanic rage?

It’s simply cars, vans and lorries parked on the pavement - and all quite legally.

Frequently, I have to use my 'side walk' to get past - sidling sideways, left leg and left arm first, followed by my right limbs.

There’s me complaining. But it’s a lot worse for some would-be pavement users - I've seen parents pushing prams and pushchairs and wheelchair users forced into the road to get past.

Not for nothing do we call pavements 'footways'. They're not parkways.

Admittedly, we've had to give up half of some of our pavements to cyclists. That's OK. I can live with joint cycleways and walkways.

I'm not so sure about runways for joggers though - that could cause an issue for an airline pilot making an emergency landing and discovering Cheddon Road Runway on Google Maps. And driveways are something different.

Pavement parking has already been banned in London for some time. And a couple of years ago, the Government put out feelers to see how stakeholders across the rest of England felt about the issue.

The Department for Transport (DfT) says it is an issue it takes seriously as pavement parking “can cause real problems for pedestrians, but particularly for wheelchair users, people with visual impairments and those with prams or buggies”.

But on the other hand, it points out that pavement parking is “necessary” in many narrow streets to maintain free-flowing traffic, including for emergency services vehicles.

DfT concludes that local authorities are best placed to assess how parking should be managed in their communities.