Free Traffic Legal Advice

Hope everyone is having a happy holiday

just opened this letter and have a few days left to respond or just pay (ignore the date on video, it was first sent to leasing company). It appears that I have driven through a permit holders only road. I have googled this and it is fairly new and has caught many people out. I drive for a living (private hire taxi) and even I managed to get caught out by this. It appears to be a pretty bad trap and started looking at the legality of it all.

The sign itself is mounted extremely high up and is unreasonable for approaching cars to gauge (I'm sure there is a legal limit to the height of the sign but I could be wrong. The sign appears to be at least 4 meters off the ground.)

It is somewhat obscured on approach by a some overgrowth from a nearby house. You don't notice anything amiss until the last possible second.

The sign itself is unlit, making it is hard to spot a sign that needs your attention when approaching in the dark. I mean realistically you wouldn't be looking that high up for a sign when approaching a width restriction.

Even once spotted, there is a solid white line for the bus lane to your right, which would box you in before you can even gauge the sign. If a vehicle approaches from behind you end up getting trapped.

I am a private hire (taxi) driver, I am sure I was navigating with Waze which is pretty good with this stuff, so I am surprised it routed me via a no access road. I may have been dropping off near those streets that's why it was routing me there but I would need to request my fares to see. However from what I can see, the sign does not say "except for access." so this may not help either way.

Any luck with this? Many thanks!

google maps location (NOTE: THIS IS OLD NOT UPDATED)
Location

video:

Thanks stamfordman

Any templates I can use to sort this out?

Also out of curiosity, is there a height limit on sign posts? As this one seems unreasonable high, uselessly used for repeater signs for HGVs etc.

Many thanks!

... The sign itself is mounted extremely high up and is unreasonable for approaching cars to gauge (I'm sure there is a legal limit to the height of the sign but I could be wrong. The sign appears to be at least 4 meters off the ground.)

It is somewhat obscured on approach by a some overgrowth from a nearby house. You don't notice anything amiss until the last possible second.

The sign itself is unlit, making it is hard to spot a sign that needs your attention when approaching in the dark. I mean realistically you wouldn't be looking that high up for a sign when approaching a width restriction.

...

Crikey - admittedly I'm no expert on moving traffic violations but I had to view that video four times before I could even see the signs in question.  I'd say they are significantly higher than 4m.

Just a quick update on this. I sent them a standard template explaining the basic circumstances and I never heard anything back. It's been almost 3 months so I'm going to consider this case pretty much closed on their behalf.

Many thanks fellas!