Free Traffic Legal Advice

Hi All,

recently had a PCN come through for a school street, on the day i absolutely did not see any signage and this was a route i used from time to time. I then went back to visit the site after receiving the PCN and the signage is absolutely woeful in my opinion. I will be appealing and am confident i will win. Just after some guidance and help with wording perhaps? see images below.

https://ibb.co/JKbCYwt
https://ibb.co/M5GBnVN
https://ibb.co/h8MTHD9
https://ibb.co/ggxt3MT

There is a small sign just on the other side of the bridge which can easily be blocked by cars parked in front of it, the actual school street signs are at a 90 degree angle for the road which i was coming from and the signs on the base of these poles, well one was again blocked by an audi Q5 which you can see in the image from the council camera and the other poles sign is missing on the day i pass through there which you can see from the first image attached above.

Hi the top photo is from the council. The others are mines.

GSV - https://www.google.com/maps/@51.6005556,-0.0708331,3a,75y,262.99h,77.18t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s8wRWJ8Z5IodWAD-BNuSjpw!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D12.818501070155946%26panoid%3D8wRWJ8Z5IodWAD-BNuSjpw%26yaw%3D262.9891632408677!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205410&entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MTAxNi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

Just for reference i come along Ruskin road and enter Birkbeck Rd which is the school st. You can see the signs are fine if you are travelling along Birkbeck Rd, but when you are turning in from Ruskin Rd as i did you are at a 90 degree angle to the road signs. You can also see in my 4th photo the sign at the base of the pole has clearly fallen off previously and been re attached with some wire.

Attached front of PCN letter unfortunately i'm at work now so can't send a photo of the back of the PCN, i had already taken a photo of the front before.

Hi Andersen,

The ONLY sign in advance of reaching Birkbeck road is the one after the bridge, in image 2. There are No signs before this one. I turned into Ruskin Rd off the high road and there are no other signs.

If you were to get to Birkbeck Rd and see the sign somehow you can only reverse back out or do a 3 point turn.

For convenience:

Then put this to the authority. But IMO it would still be a gamble at adjudication because instead of choosing to pull in once you'd processed the info in the sign you chose to continue.

'I didn't have any choice but to' is not a sure win, we've seen other decisions regarding situations where motorists' only choice was to stop, turn and go back or commit a contravention and the outcomes have been mixed.

Well,

got the rejection letter from the council today.

Open to suggestions do you think it's worth going to adjudication or cut my losses and pay £65?

My argument will always be signage could and should be better, approaching this new school street there is one sign under the bridge which you can't see when cars are parked in front of it as well as this sign being too late, its literally 30 yards before the actual school street, the 2 signs in situ in my opinion could be much better simply placing a sign in the location i highlighted in orange above as this is the threshold for entering Birkbeck Road.

i can see the counter argument of you should have stopped at the end of Ruskin Road, observed and understood the signs and then could/should have turned around...

tell me what your thoughts are and in your experience is this one to fight or let go.

thanks.