Free Traffic Legal Advice

Hi All,
 
I was looking for some advice. Last weekend we were travelling south to Wembley via the A1. Unfortunately there was a accident at the top of the A1 and satnav diverted us through Boreham wood.
Driving this unfamiliar route I came across a narrow bollarded section of road down Dennis Lane (Harrow), sign said 2m/6ft6. Now my car is a standard Volvo XC90 which is 1.96m wide from tyre to tyre where they touch the ground and approx. 1.985m wide wheelarch to wheelarch, with wing mirrors even wider.
 
There are no signs saying you absolutely must go through the narrow restriction and no signs saying any particular vehicle is forbidden from driving the wider route. I therefore made a split decision and chose to drive through the broken line hatched area (highway code states you can drive through a broken line hatched area if safe to do so) to avoid damaging my car. As you guessed it, Harrow council have sent me a PCN.
The PCN reads “Harrow Council believes that a Penalty Charge is payable with respect to the above vehicle for the following alleged contravention: 38L – failing to comply with a sign indicating that vehicular traffic must pass to the specified side of the sign – must pass to the left”
 
I am wanting to contest this for the principle of it as I think it is highly unfair. Do you think it is worth me pursuing?
Google location (out of date): https://maps.app.goo.gl/TyuZPJzji8TLiZoW8

PCN images:-
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/j0cf87ohrtofug0i0eu4k/IMG_5293.jpg?rlkey=mmizpu8blpfbthntmt0hiuf4v&st=ugeufdg0&dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ybyko0or6jhm57kl0bgc4/IMG_5294.jpg?rlkey=0rp013rdz72j43vdeesua135l&st=51vt0v26&dl=0
 
I am also unhappy with the ambiguity of this 2m/6ft6 sign since 6ft6 is actually 1.98m not 2m, so which is the correct size? 2m or 6ft6. Also where is this measured from, the kerbstone or the bollards?
If the bollards then that would mean the kerbs are even narrower by at least 200mm. Either way my car would not fit.
 
To add to this I think I may get another PCN also as on the way out of London on another unfamiliar route we came across what appears to be the infamous Camrose Avenue Bus Gate. It was 11pm at night, nobody on the road, I wasn’t gaining any advantage and it was safe so again, I chose to go avoid the small 2m/6ft6 section and go through the wider bus gate to prevent damaging my standard unmodified car as I knew it wouldn’t fit.
 
All seems an injustice to me that these London parish’s are forcing fines for standard vehicles that won’t fit through their unfairly developed/enforced road systems.
 
Any advice appreciated.

N.B. (will upload PCN shortly)

I'm afraid this is the downside of running a large wide SUV. The whole point of these restrictions is to keep goods vehicles away, but modern cars/SUVs have now crept up to have dimensions that are similar to the smaller commercial vehicles.  It really is a political issue and saying your vehicle didn't fit the gap is not a valid appeal argument, I'm afraid.

If its any comfort, the 1988 Jaguar XJ220 would not fit the gap either.

Thanks for your quick response on this guys.

Quote from: stamfordman on October 06, 2025, 06:13:51 pm

Google Maps is out of date and there is now a blue arrow on the bollard - this is a must do condition and so it isn't true there is no signage.

On this I was more thinking along the lines of there is no signage there saying that you cannot enter the broken line hatched area. According to the Highways code you can enter/cross a broken line hatched area as long as its safe to do so.

No, but there is an arrow sign pointing to the narrow lane. This means to proceed you must obey the arrow sign; only emergency vehicles can use the wide middle lane.