Free Traffic Legal Advice

Dear Forum,

A driver regularly attends the Edmonton Mosque on Friday's for the Muslim Friday Prayers. For other Muslim Prayers, the driver usually attends the local Mosque so only attends the Edmonton Mosque for the larger prayer events. Around the Edmonton Mosque, the roads have a parking restriction only on event days as the area is near the Tottenham Football Stadium where the event days are when there are football matches or other events (like NFL or music concerts) held in this stadium. During an event day, the parking restrictions are from 12pm till 9pm.

Usually there is no event days on a Friday, so when the driver attends the Edmonton Mosque, they usually park in the restricted area without any worry. There are no signs around the area to indicate when an event day is occurring so the driver must take their own initiative to go on the internet to check if there is an event at the stadium. In contrast to the roads near the Arsenal Stadium which also have similar parking restrictions, when there is an event at the Arsenal Stadium, there is a sign near the parking restriction sign to say that 'Today is an event day' so drivers don't need to figure out by themselves if the restrictions are being enforced on that day or not.

On the 5th Jan 2024, a driver parked on Raynham Avenue, N18, at 1pm to attend the Edmonton Mosque for the Friday prayers. The driver was unaware that there was a football match due at Tottenham Stadium later that evening (at 8pm, so 7 hours later). When the driver returned from the Friday Prayers the driver found a PCN on the windshield of the vehicle. Is there any chance of successfully appealing this PCN from the information provided thus far?

The PCN is as follows:
<blockquote class="imgur-embed-pub" lang="en" data-id="a/vPKX3PU" data-context="false" ><a href="//imgur.com/a/vPKX3PU">Enfield PCN Front</a></blockquote><script async src="//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

From Google Maps, here is a street view with the parking restriction sign.
<blockquote class="imgur-embed-pub" lang="en" data-id="a/zNE5PbD" data-context="false" ><a href="//imgur.com/a/zNE5PbD"></a></blockquote><script async src="//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Not sure if the images are coming through, but here is a link to the images.

Parking Restriction signs:
https://imgur.com/a/zNE5PbD

PCN:
https://imgur.com/a/vPKX3PU

Yes, but the next event day is supposed to be displayed on the entry to th e zone where event day restrictions are imposed. So you need to find out where the zone boundaries are, and get a photo of the sign. They have a legal duty to display the event days on the zone entry signs. They cannot say "it's all on our website". If that is what they are saying you should take them to London Tribunals where you will win.

Yes, but the next event day is supposed to be displayed on the entry to th e zone where event day restrictions are imposed. So you need to find out where the zone boundaries are, and get a photo of the sign. They have a legal duty to display the event days on the zone entry signs. They cannot say "it's all on our website". If that is what they are saying you should take them to London Tribunals where you will win.

We don't know which direction the OP approached Raynham Avenue from, but GSV shows zone entry signs on both sides of Fore Street at its junction with the A406, complete with "Next event day" plate: https://maps.app.goo.gl/skRRtk2zSmL1EFmV8

Approaching from the Tottenham direction, there are signs on both sides of the road at the boundary with LB of Haringey:

And approaching from the Westbound North Circular Road and using a series of back streets: [URL=https://maps.app.goo.gl/WZTxkLgVFxe5JUKMA]https://maps.app.goo.gl/WZTxkLgVFxe5JUKMA

I'm only aware of one occasion where they forgot to update a couple of the signs, resulting in me getting a PCN. Fortunately they cancelled at the informal reps stage upon being presented with the evidence.

Quote from: Incandescent on January 13, 2024, 07:39:06 pm

Yes, but the next event day is supposed to be displayed on the entry to th e zone where event day restrictions are imposed. So you need to find out where the zone boundaries are, and get a photo of the sign. They have a legal duty to display the event days on the zone entry signs. They cannot say "it's all on our website". If that is what they are saying you should take them to London Tribunals where you will win.

We don't know which direction the OP approached Raynham Avenue from, but GSV shows zone entry signs on both sides of Fore Street at its junction with the A406, complete with "Next event day" plate: https://maps.app.goo.gl/skRRtk2zSmL1EFmV8

Approaching from the Tottenham direction, there are signs on both sides of the road at the boundary with LB of Haringey:

And approaching from the Westbound North Circular Road and using a series of back streets: [url=https://maps.app.goo.gl/WZTxkLgVFxe5JUKMA]https://maps.app.goo.gl/WZTxkLgVFxe5JUKMA

I'm only aware of one occasion where they forgot to update a couple of the signs, resulting in me getting a PCN. Fortunately they cancelled at the informal reps stage upon being presented with the evidence.

So the driver went around the back from Tesco Lea Valley to Raynham Avenue. The exact path is as follows:


https://imgur.com/a/EKQNf0O

The event day restriction zones starts from when you leave Leeside Road at the roundabout and go to any of the 3 exit roads, such as Dysons Road which the driver did. Looking at Google Maps Street View, there does not seem to be any signs mentioning when the next event day is at this roundabout junction so is it worth driving down there again to get some pictures to see what is what in terms of signs that should be there?

For ease, here is the PCN again in the correct format for the forum.

but I don't recall seeing any sign's noting a event day when I entered the area with the event day parking restrictions.

Here is the sign as per GSV March 2022
https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZgQptLQdYrT53TeY9
So unless there was no even date on that sign, you look bang-to-rights, I'm afraid.

Thanks John and Incandescent, seems the driver was just not paying attention, especially if they passed 2 signs mentioning when the next event day occurred. Do you think the driver could appeal saying that the sign did not mention that an event was occurring on the 5th Jan and hope the Council don't have any evidence that does support a valid sign was in-place?

Absent any other suggestions, try this

Penalty Charge Notice No. AB 123456
dated 05/01/24
Reg Mark ABC123

Dear Sirs,
I wish to challenge the above PCN on the grounds that the wording of the PCN does not conform to the statutory Regulations, which is a Procedural Impropriety, and this PCN should therefore be cancelled.
Yours faithfully,
confused-z
Dated 18th January, 2024

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They will probably refuse, and in refusing re-offer the discount.
But it gives you more time to explore every possible option.