Moving Traffic Contraventions
Penalty Charge Notices Moving Traffic Offences
Most local authorities are now enforcing moving traffic contraventions such as no u turn, one way streets, yellow boxes, motor vehicles prohibited, failure to pass in direction of an arrow etc.
If you have received a penalty charge notice check how to have your pcn cancelled.
In principle we support enforcement of moving traffic offences. However many motorists including ourselves see the strict and overzealous enforcement by some local authorities as an easy way to rake in millions of pounds in fines from motorists. See our news section for some of the horrendous stories we have released to the media. Very often motorists are fined where the signs or road markings are defective, missing or even illegal, or where there has been only a very minor transgression of the rules. Worse still in instances where motorists have been fined illegally or incorrectly some local authorities such as refuse to refund penalties already collected.
Adjudicator finds against Camden at notorious restriction in Grafton road. The adjudicator said that the signs were not compliant. the council have issued over £5m of tickets for this “no motor vehicles” restriction., See contravention code 52 and also adjudicator’s decisions accessed from the left hand menu.
In one case in Harrow – 209051298A the local authority carried on enforcing a no right turn contravention in full knowledge that one of the signs had been removed. In this case the remaining sign was obscured by a hording and the evidence they produced to the adjudicator was of another vehicle at another location. Please note the local authority now only has to install one sign but it must be visible.
A few London authorities have issued disproportionately higher amounts of PCNs for moving traffic contraventions with Camden and Transport for London topping the lead. We believe that some authorities see this as yet another way to rake in revenue. Camden council issued around 17,000 fines in one street alone next to St Pancras station where they banned motor vehicles. Their signs were however not clear and not illuminated and it was only after the adjudicator confirmed that their signage did not comply that they improved it. In the meantime they had issued around £1.7million pounds of fines! They would not refund motorists unless they wrote in even though they should not have been issued tickets in the first place. Camden’s approach is again illustrated with the example of Grafton Rd NW5. Grafton Rd was a popular rat run which Camden Council decided to restrict access during peak hours to help local residents. The closure was enforced using rising bollards which proved successful and no contravention of the restriction was possible, no tickets were issued to motorists and the residents were delighted at the reduction in vehicular traffic. Camden decided that it would be better to remove the rising bollards and replace them with a sign thereby allowing motorists to contravene the restriction on a regular basis and receive a penalty charge notice (PCN) in the post for their mistake.! Camden have issued over 40,000 penalty charge notices to confused motorists at this location with a face value of around £5 million. At the same time residents have had to endure at least 40,000 more motorists driving along their residential street. And the adjudicator has criticised Camden and upheld appeals against them for their poor signage but Camden are unrepentant. A few years ago we had a massive story on this on BBC, ITV and several national newspapers. Please join our website and support the work that we do to help the motorist.
Our section on moving traffic contraventions is the most comprehensive anywhere and is very easy to navigate. Simply search for the particular contravention for details of each contravention and how to have your penalty charge notice (PCN ) cancelled. We even have scores of summarised adjudicator’s decisions where motorists have won their appeals. You can use the left hand menu or simply enter the 2 digit contravention code or a brief description such as “yellow box” into the box at the bottom of any page.