Free Traffic Legal Advice

Hello,

I am very new to this sort of thing; I would really appreciate some assistance.

I parked in a road in Little Chalfont where I have been parking on and off for over 20 years. There was nothing that had obviously changed: no lines of any description on the road and no signs present/near to where I parked; I returned to find a PCN from Buckinghamshire Council.

It turned out that, during lockdown, the council extended the parking restrictions that have been present throughout the village of Little Chalfont (in the vicinity of the station - between 1100 and 1200 hours) to include the road where I parked, but decided not to/couldn't be bothered to extend the yellow lines that everyone associates with the restrictions in the area.

This means that anyone coming from the direction I did enters a road where the single/double yellows stop and there is nothing to suggest that the situation has been altered, except a single sign about 50m down the road (where I did not even drive).

The response I have had from the council is that there is no legal requirement for a yellow line to be present, as there is an 'entering restricted parking zone' sign on an adjacent road (where single/double yellows ARE present). But one naturally assumes that the restricted parking zone sign (which is present on one side of the road only) works in conjunction with the yellow lines (as has always been the case in the area) and, therefore, if the yellow lines stop on entering the road where I parked, there is not a single sign at the entrance to the unlined road, and there is NOTHING to make one go looking for the one sign much further down the road, how enforceable/legal is what they are doing ?!

Any/all advice gratefully received...

PB

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Thanks for the input.

I did not enter from that end of Westwood Drive but yes, there IS one of those signs at the other end as well.  The sign on the other side is much more recent but my objection still stands: the single yellow lines that have been there for years - and have always been accompanied by regular plates on posts detailing the restriction - stopped before the road that I parked in and so I could, and do, quite legitimately claim that I thought the restriction applied only to one part of Westwood Drive (and the whole of Farm Close) where the lines and signs are clear.  It really does smack of being most underhand.

I have some dashcam footage of the route I took, if that's any good - I just need to work out how to post it...

Thanks but have done this instead.  I hope it works...

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1JjIsuP-5eamQzUFUw1WDRuKy9wKlXdgO?usp=drive_link

Oh dear... I thought I had set it to "anyone with a link" but I will look again... HHHmmm...

Sorry - done now...

Yes, I understand what you are saying - but it sure is more than a little 'dodgy' what they have done.  And it certainly is not unreasonable for me to make the assumption that I did, given that the situation in the whole rest of the village (a place with which I am more than a little familiar) is different.  It is unfair - and wrong - to expect me to go looking for signs on an unlined part of road when there was nothing at the entrance to that section of the road - and only ONE sign on ONE side in the middle of a long stretch of the road.  It is incredibly frustrating for someone who is always so careful where he parks so as not to annoy anyone or fall foul of any regulations.

The argument you are making is that I did not HAVE to go looking for any signs, because everything I needed was at the entrance to Westwood Drive !  But - at the risk of repeating myself - it is perfectly reasonable to me to assume that that restriction did not extend to the part where I parked, that was different in lineage AND signage from ALL the rest of the area...

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Appreciated.  Thanks...

(And it's a small point, but I find the wording on the PCN ambiguous.  Surely it should read 'parked in a restricted street during PROSCRIBED hours' and not "prescribed hours".  I don't suppose it matters but it seems odd to me...)

I totally agree, but prescribed hours is the invariable form -perhaps short for'prescribed hours of No Parking'

For the benefit of anyone else who happens to be searching this forum about a very similar - or, better still, the identical - issue, I would like you to know that I have won the appeal to have the PCN overturned. Thanks to all...

PB

Could you post the full judgment, please. Blank your name out if you wish. We need to see the adjudicators thinking. Sometimes they decide based on something completely different to what the appellant puts forward !