Free Traffic Legal Advice

Yesterday my neighbour knocked on my door and said "there's 3 people around your car and they're about to tow it".

To my surprise I went downstairs only to find 3 guys, a tow truck, and a PCN already issued.

I asked what happened, and they said that this is a partially suspended bay. I looked, and there was indeed that funny yellow piece of plastic on a column (which I obviously didn't notice). I live just upstairs, and I've seen these green signs on and off here and there.

The tower handed me the ticket and said "here's your present", language that I did not appreciate at all, but ho hum.

I said "you know that it's illegal to tow cars?". He replied "we weren't going to tow it, we were just going to relocate it". I said that I was busy and don't have time to have an argument about this.

Granted, there was a yellow sign that was prohibiting parking (someone was moving in, or out, and I reckon they have put a request to the council for that?), however, I have a life and two kids that I need to be taking back and forth to the nursery, and I honestly don't have the time to read or pay attention to every sign that Camden decides to put up, especially right below where I live. As far as I'm concerned, it's a parking space and I am allowed to park.

They should at least make it a little more obvious, like they do whenever they feel like e.g. yellow tape to clearly mark the place -why did not they do that?









Location is here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/QPioruLcqUsQ3uDq5

Where's the 'whole bay outside 1 to 3'? There don't appear to be bays, it's a parking place reserved to permit holders which does not have internal dividers as suggested in the plan.

Furthermore, if the bay was a discrete unit then the traffic sign should have been covered because it applied only to the suspended area.

And as parking prior to 8.30 was unrestricted, albeit within a designated parking place, then IMO a penalty could not be demanded before 8.41. Regulation 5 refers:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2022/71/regulation/5

Some thoughts.

Camden won't accept the 10 min grace argument and I'm not sure it's wise to rely on this ground only. But I think we had one won on a yellow line case out of London.

Camden did lose two cases on this (inc. one reviewed):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1G0L1N2uhGjb3tdOyrEGU4ZEKbYbfsuKe/edit
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Pyaz1Hh48aAMAiHaQolbCNwIADBZ0kVM/edit

But then there was this reviewed one where Ivan did his best but it was said:

I take the view that when a designated parking place is suspended, it does not cease to exist, as suggested by the Authority, instead it continues to exist but becomes inactive, which means that no parking is permitted in the parking place at any time [other than specified vehicle or vehicles engaged in the activity requiring the suspension). The wording of the 10-minute grace provisions indicates, in my view, that it is concerned with active parking places, not inactive ones. There is a definition of “parking place’ at s32 Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 that states: “parking place” means a place where vehicles, or vehicles of any class, may wait’. The words: ‘may wait’ denote exactly that, whereas in the case of a suspended bay, a vehicle may not wait.
Furthermore, the definition of ‘permitted parking period’ indicates that the condition of being able to park in the parking place is simply payment or authorisation. The words: ‘the vehicle has been left beyond the permitted parking period’ indicate that there is an ongoing ability to park in the parking space, subject to payment or permit ie the parking space is active and continues to be so. That is not the case with a suspended bay. In those circumstances, I take the view that a suspended bay does not fall within the definition of a ‘designated parking place’ in the context of the 10-minute grace provisions which require that the parking place be active rather than inactive and so it follows that that those provisions do not apply to suspended bays. Accordingly, I agree with the Adjudicator’s decision.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/18N6037-TBIfvUkEOHSi1XWDh7UC86l5p/edit

I agree - I'm just flagging up cases that are also in Camden and which this authority is keen to review.

Camden says:

It is important to note that the grace period only applies to ‘designated parking places’ and not on yellow lines, keep clears, zig-zags or suspended bays.

but that doesn't explain what happens if you are in a parking place initially.

One of the allowed cases puts it simply:

There is force in the argument that the officer should have allowed a 10
minute period of grace before issuing the Penalty Charge Notice, in line with
Section 2 of the Civil Enforcement of Parking Contraventions (England)
General (Amendment) Regulations 2015. This is the provision which applies
where a vehicle is stationary in a designated parking place and been left
beyond the permitted parking period. The crucial element is that the initial
parking must have been lawful. In this case a course it was, at the time the
vehicle was left the suspension was not actually in force, even if there is
debate about when the warning sign was erected. The suspension came
into force at 8 AM on the morning of 6 January and the PCN was issued at
8:02 AM. In the circumstances I conclude that the issue of this PCN was not
compliant with the requirements of the "10 minute grace period" regulations
and that the appeal could be allowed on that basis.

I was hoping we might have a defence on the appearance of the parking suspension sign. Here is Camden's authorisation dating from 2011. LAs with authorisations this old frequently forget the "with the year omitted" stipulation but it looks as though Camden has got it right unless anyone can spot something inconsistent that I can't.

https://assets.dft.gov.uk/trafficauths/case-2979.pdf