Contravention Code 31

Entering and stopping in a box junction when prohibited – Contravention code 31

 

 

The Highway Code clearly states that you must not enter a Yellow Box Junction unless your exit is clear or if you are turning right but need to wait in the box because of oncoming, moving traffic.

Yellow box junctions are being enforced by camera by some of the London boroughs and transport for London as well as more local authorities nationwide. 

Many motorists are not aware that you can be fined for entering a box junction if you are turning left at a junction where there is a yellow box if there is traffic in the road you are turning into and you are unable to clear the box. Transport for London are enforcing this.

Above: Here is a yellow box junction outside Marylebone Station in central London. As you can see it is not located at a junction at all. Also there are double yellow lines around it so it is not correctly marked and therefore unenforceable.

Above: This picture is located in Harewood Avenue London NW1. A box junction must meet the kerb on all 4 corners but this one extends along the road beyond the junction for quite a few feet in each direction so it is not enforceable. A yellow box can only be at a junction unless a specific approval has been given by the department for transport.

 

Above: This is the yellow box at the junction of Gloucester Place and Marylebone Road. It is located at a large junction on this very busy 6 lane road. However rather than having one large Yellow Box Transport for London have actually installed 2 Yellow boxes next to each other (one on each carriageway) with a space between them. However adjudicator’s decisions have stated that a yellow box must extend to all 4 corners of a junction and there are no provisions for 2 boxes to be next to each other unless a special permission has been obtained from the secretary of state for transport. Many appeals have been won on this point.

 

 

How to have your penalty charge notice (PCN) for this parking contravention cancelled.

We may be able to assist you in having your penalty charge notice for this contravention cancelled.

Follow our 3 stage process:

1 Check: Specific grounds for appeal for this contravention (below on this page)

2 Check: What a Penalty Charge Notice must contain

3 Check: Statutory grounds for appeal for Moving Traffic Contraventions

 

Specific grounds of appeal for this contravention

1.) It is important to remember that this specific contravention is not that of causing an obstruction or blocking the yellow box, it is quite simply “entering a box junction when your exit is not clear”. It is possible to stop within a yellow box without committing an offence. For example if at the time you entered the box the exit was clear but then a lorry cut in front of you and stopped, forcing you to stop in the yellow box. In fact the independent adjudicator has upheld appeals against Tfl and other councils on this point. In one case transport for London said the vehicle was obstructing the box but because that is not part of the defined contravention and they did not produce evidence of the vehicle actually entering the box when its exit was not clear the appeal against them was upheld. Sometimes there is another set of traffic lights immediately after the box junction and if they change and you become blocked in the junction then that is not an offence as long as they were green when you entered the junction.

To prove a contravention the enforcing authority must be able to show that at the time that you entered the box the exit was blocked by stationary traffic.

There are 12 more ways that you can have your penalty charge notice cancelled for this offence including detailed diagrams of what the box must look like. We have even summarised adjudicator’s decisions where motorists have won.

Now take a look at the adjudicators decisions for this contravention.

 

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