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I support HCA's suggested draft.

I would not mention the shortness of the stop as "mitigation", because you are submitting representations that the offence did not occur, so mitigation is an irrelevancy.
The person who viewed the camera footage in the council is the one who has failed to understand the nature of the restriction, so is obvously either badly trained or motivated by the cash the council will get if you just cough-up.

The adjudicator in the case I cited refused the appeal but by doing so specified where the restricted area is. Not on the side of the road where you were. So it's a recent (July 2025), helpful case by one of their most critical brains.

The contravention is no stopping, not for a second. There's little point in explaining what you were doing - when they review the video they'll know it was dropping a kid off anyway.

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thanks and apologies but still not sure what is the minor design error here? e.g. what does '50mm' and '40mm' mean?

Not wishing to overthink this because it may turn out to be irrelevant. But before I answer this question, please confirm the photo of the sign you posted was from Google Street View (GSV). If so, it would be better to take your own photos of the sign, one for context and one close-up, then post them here. Sometimes GSV is out of date.

The upright sign in this case is critical for the contravention to be made out. The road markings alone are not enough. Once I’m sure what sign(s) were in place, I’ll give a more detailed answer. In the meantime I suggest you follow HCA’s advice/text.

sure, i just took the photos this morning. please do let me know if any relevancy here?

https://imgur.com/a/xr7ntKC

I’m guessing this PCN was issued via an enforcement car not a fixed CCTV camera, given the cardboard temporary ‘enforcement camera’ sign beneath the ‘no stopping on entrance markings’ sign.

To simplify this I’ve posted an image of what the relevant sign should look like. The sign actually in place doesn’t fully comply with the regulations because the “Mon - Fri” is too big, but IMO this is only a minor error. It probably won’t matter at appeal stage.

In other words, take it that the signs and markings are substantially complaint and forget this part of your argument. Hope this makes sense.

thanks! so i will ignore the potential error with the sign and use HCA's draft for my representation to the council, correct?

Bad news…my representation is rejected and the reason they gave is “there is no exemption which allows boarding or alighting on a school restriction. The markings are placed outside school entrances to both highlight the school entrance to Road users, and to indicate an area that should be kept clear of stationary vehicles for the safety of the children and other pedestrians. In order to drop off or collect passengers from school a safer and more appropriate parking place should be found, before or after the restricted area where your vehicle is not in contravention of parking regulations, and where it would not endanger others”

So in summary I believe they are saying that the centre point of the Road opposite to the markings does not matter here.

Any other thoughts on what I should / can do next? Thanks!🙏