I yesterday (11/02/2026) received from Carmarthenshire County Council the PCN linked below.
I was driving through an area within a mile of my house but which I don't routinely use, and since I was last there a 'School Streets' restriction has been put in place. Once I realised what the restriction signs ahead of me were for, my initial thought that was I was outside of school dropping off times so the restriction would not be currently in force, and there was no traffic or pedestrians visible the whole length of the road ahead of me to suggest otherwise.
By the time I had registered from what I think is quite 'information dense' high-level signage that the afternoon restriction begins at 2.40pm and then was able to check the time (14:53) I had almost reached the prohibition signs which are placed either side of the road on road narrowing structures (a pre-existing traffic calming measure) after going through give way to oncoming traffic road markings with cars parked on the cross hatching markings leading to the narrowing on my side of the road. (see
https://maps.app.goo.gl/h1BXCMF9HNjdUzpS8 for road layout and signage at this point - as also seen on the PCN image).
I immediately realised that I shouldn't continue driving down the street but the road narrowing and parked cars made a turn in the road difficult at that point and I felt it would be potentially dangerous to reverse, so as there were no traffic or pedestrians beyond the road narrowing I drove through, completed an immediate turn in the road, and drove back the way I had come.
The image on the PCN shows me just outside the restricted zone, and moving away from it (i.e. just after I had completed the turn in the road to avoid driving past the school) so it doesn't actually show that I passed the prohibition. I can't find any way of viewing what further photos / video there might be from Carmarthenshire CC but I imagine there is probably further evidence to show I did proceed a few metres beyond the signs before turning back.
I feel I have a good case for mitigation, but I gather that is rarely accepted by councils, and that advice here is that challenges on procedural grounds where possible are usually the best approach. The PCN seems to fall into the category of a number of successful appeals listed on here where the PCN fails to particularise the vehicles to which the prohibition applies.
So, do I challenge the PCN purely on that ground alone, or do I include the stuff about what actually happend too? Does it make a difference that I'm in Wales (which has similar wording in Welsh legislation
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/362/pdfs/uksi_20130362_en.pdf), whereas all the examples I've found on here are from the London Tribunal? Incidentally, the Welsh language version of the PCN did not use the Welsh language version of my address which contravenes the Code of Practice for the Welsh Language Standards (a statutory document -
https://www.welshlanguagecommissioner.wales/media/hgqdctio/code-of-practice-regulations-1.pdf), but I don't think this would be sufficient to invalidate the PCN in itself.
A couple of minor issues I noticed are that the header on page 3 says "Date PCN Served: 05/02/2026" but this is the date of contravention, not issue or service, and there's a grammatical error in "if payment is received within 21 days (inclusive) of the date of served of this PCN"
