Free Traffic Legal Advice

For a head-on approach, the signs are correctly positioned and seem clear enough on GSV. The approach from the side road, (Manton Avenue) has an advance warning sign as the main signs cannot be seen until one starts the turn.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/UUnfj6Jtm5ANbQwA9
So it does seem to have adequate signage in place. I'm puzzled why your husband failed to see the main signs, because they are in use for Low Traffic Zones and School Streets all over London.  Normally in cases where permit holders are permitted, a tradesman obtains a Visitor Permit from the householder so that when a PCN is entered, it can be presented as evidence of having a permit.

Difficult to advise what to write as representations other than to say that when he arrived at the address, the householder had no permit or any visitor permits for him to use, so request that the PCN be cancelled in the circumstances. 

Remember the signs for next time; they are all over London, and known at "FLying Motorbike" signs !

@ankazo put a draft on here first please.

@ankazo well we'll have to do a lot better than that as your draft is bound to be rejected. This case warrants using the strategy of last resort, which involves:

1) Making a plea for discretion, and
2) tripping the council into demonstrably failing to consider your representations.

Step 1 involves appealing to the authority's discretionary power not to enforce, which is a power only the council has (the tribunal cannot allow an appeal on this basis).

Step 2 involves giving the council a link to a video or image you want them to consider as mitigating evidence, and setting it up view a click / view counter so we can prove whether they're looked at your supporting evidence or not. If they fail to look at it, you can then win on a failure to consider.

If they then send you a boilerplate rejection and don't look at the evidence, we can prove a failure to consider and that is a ground on which the tribunal can allow an appeal.

Do you have anything we can use as mitigating evidence? In your case anything like an invoice, quote, appointment letter from the customer and so on could be used. The best evidence to use in this scenario is always video evidence, but you might not have any.

ankazo if you'd like me to help setting up the links please contact me privately and we can arrange that.

Why Aren't School Streets Cases Won on Inadequate Signage?

@cp8759 I don't understand why cases such as this aren't won by challenging the adequacy of the signage.

This is the view at the point where, at the specified hours, a driver has to decide to turn right in order to avoid a PCN: the chances of turning round once you've passed the sign are minimal; in any case, the camera sign suggests that you're being photographed as you pass the sign.

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Can you read the times when the sign applies? If you can, how long does it take you to work out how those times relate to the current time and whether, if you're going to a call-out, you will still be in the zone (whose extent you don't know) when the zone comes into operation.

The image is 20m before the signs. There has been no previous indication of the restriction ahead, so what you see here is all you've got to go on. If you're doing 20 mph, the thinking distance for an emergency stop is 6m and the braking distance is 6m. Do you slam on the brakes? If you've been caught by one of these signs before, perhaps you do. You'll come to a halt with the front of your vehicle aligned with the far kerb of the road to the right. You'll have to reverse to make the turn, but will avoid a PCN.


Advice in Traffic Signs Manual

Section 6.2 of  Chapter 3 of the Traffic Signs Manual has these examples of diagrams 618.3B and 618.3C showing restrictions which apply for limited periods or days:

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At most one range of days and at most one range of times is specified. The text about the top panel on the sign states:

Where the zone operates only on certain days of the week and for 24 hours on those days, the days only are shown on the sign ... If the zone is part‑time, the operational period is shown in the upper panel

Exceptions are set out on the next (middle) panel. Here the text states:

A time period indicating when the exceptions apply (if different from the zone operational period) may be included in the middle panel. It is recommended that where more than one exception is shown on the sign, each applies for the same time period, otherwise the sign becomes complex and difficult for a driver to assimilate. If different time periods are required for each exception, it is likely to be more appropriate to use the variable message sign.

The text thus acknowledges the possibility of more than one time period in a day for exceptions but uses the singular for the period of operation.


Working Drawings and FoI Request

I'm still waiting for a reply from DfT to my FoI about the working drawings for diagram 618.3C. In this FoI I've asked whether the available options for diagram 618.3C (other than a variable-message sign) include in the top panel:

• more than one range of days, e.g. Mon, Wed-Fri
• more than one time period, e.g. Midnight - 11am // 4pm - Midnight.

The working drawings usually help resolve these issues. They include the full range of options for the sign. In this case they're no help because they're actually for diagram 618 from TSRGD 2002 and are dated 2005.

Unless anyone has any better information, I'd say the jury is out on whether diagram 618.3C can have two periods of operation specified in the upper panel. If they can't, these School Streets signs are non-prescribed. Perhaps that's why DfT haven't answered my FoI yet.


DfT Recommendation on When to Use Variable Message Sign

Regardless of whether DfT agrees that the upper panel of diagram 618.3C can display two periods in a day, it has gone on record in paragraph 6.2.5 of Chapter 3:

6.2.5.  If the entry restrictions change during the day or on different days of the week, a variable message sign is recommended to avoid a complex legend that can be confusing and difficult to read. In this case, the upper panel should not include a time period. The sign should show a complete blank grey or black face, as defined in Schedule 1, during the times when the zone is not operational. The lower yellow panel can be displayed on the variable message sign only during the operational period of the zone (i.e. when the upper and middle panels are displayed).

To understand why, let's consider the x-heights involved. The text below the flying motorcycle has an x-height of 37.5mm. This contrasts with 50mm for the equivalent Except plates on a free-standing diagram 619 and 75mm for the Except plates below diagram 616. Thus the text on diagram 618.3C is half the size (and therefore visible from half the distance) considered necessary for an important message such as an exception from a No Entry sign.


Complexity of Ealing's Sign against DfT's Most Complex

On Ealing's signs, there are four different times to 15-minute precision with 37.5mm x-height. These are switching on and off what is, to motor vehicles, a No Entry sign.

People process text by reading it. Let's count the syllables about days and times of operation in DfT's most complex sign and Ealing's:


So Ealing's days and times of operation are more than three times the complexity of the most complex days and times shown for these signs in the Traffic Signs Manual. Talk about cognitive overload. Is it any wonder that DfT recommends the variable-message form of the sign for this situation?


A Question

If traffic authorities choose to ignore DfT recommendations, they should expect to lose challenges made to the adequacy of their signage. Motorists can't read these signs and act on them before they reach the point of no return. Yet somehow, traffic authorities are winning these cases repeatedly. Why?

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Perhaps the solution does lie in lobbying politicians and DfT. Courtesy of TSRGD(Scotland) 2022, the Scots now have diagram 618.3D with lights which flash when the zone is in operation. This echoes diagram 4004 (TSRGD 2016 Schedule 14 Part 2 Item 23) and seems much better suited to school streets (but there won't be the income from so many PCNs).

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