Hi everyone, please could someone let me know if I'm clearly in the wrong here or whether I have grounds for appeal to London Tribunals.
Situation:I've received 3 Penalty Charge Notices for entering a restricted zone, part of H&F's '
School Streets Plus' scheme at Wendell Park primary school, which covers part of Cobbold Road to cars between 8am to 9.30am and 2.30pm to 4pm on school days.
I've had an appeal rejected for the 1st PCN and only have two days to pay the reduced rate of £65 for the first PCN. I'm awaiting responses to the other two appeals, which now carry an increased £80 'reduced' rate and £160 full (noted below, we appealed these before seeing rejection to 1st appeal). Myself and my partner are on pretty low incomes paying way too much on rent and have just been forced to move house, so the prospect of paying £225 for the three fines is very hard to swallow and wipes out any disposable income for the month. Any help and advice would be massively appreciated - even if just to say we don't have a case and should pay up. We're pretty scared by the prospect of appealing further due to the risk of having to pay the increased rates that would total £450.
Contravention: 53C - Failing to comply with a restriction on vehicles entering a pedestrian and cycle zone.
Location: Wendell Park school - Cobbold Rd Westbnd nr jct Becklow (va)
Timeline: - Contravention date: 08:27 06/03/2025, notice date: 25/03/2025. Warning Notice
- Contravention date: 08:32 13/03/2025, notice date: 28/03/2025. PCN. Appealed 02/04 - rejected 22/05
- Contravention date: 14:55 23/04/2025, notice date: 15/05/2025. PCN. Appealed 24/05
- Contravention date: 09:00 25/04/2025, notice date: 15/05/2025. PCN. Appealed 24/05
Context:Moved to a house on Cobbold Road (2nd last house at the junction between Cobbold Rd, Becklow Rd, Gayford Rd) on September 23rd 2024. The road restrictions had just been brought in and were manned at physical barriers (about 30-40 meters from our house) until November, when they were replaced with ANPR cameras. At the time, my partner working outside London so needed to drive through the zone each morning - she was always allowed to by the attendants due to being a resident on the street. We've never received any information from H&F council about the scheme.
My thoughts on mitigation:- The warning notice and first PCN arrived on the same day, Saturday 29th March, even though the contraventions took place 7 days apart. There was a 15 day gap between the first contravention and the warning notice being issued, so were not afforded time to action the warning.
- We live directly adjacent to the area with cameras and our car CPZ permit (zone I) allows us to park in the restricted area.
- Prior to the warning and 1st PCN, we were under the impression we were allowed to drive through the zone due to being an affected resident living on the street - what we were told by those manning the physical barriers. After the 1st PCN, we were very confused and searched available information online. The only info we could find was these pages:
Two of these pages have a map showing the ANPR cameras and highlighting the nearby streets. Since this map is a smaller subset of the Zone I CPZ, we believed it to be indicating the streets on which residents are exempt. Perhaps I'm just trying to justify it to myself, but I find the wording unnecessarily ambiguous -- are only the residents living between the camera-covered portion of road exempt, or are we, as people living adjacent to the start of the camera zone and on the same street, exempt. Driving all the way around causes quite a bit of disruption as forces out onto main roads during morning rush hour - further than it looks due to permanent barriers preventing cut-throughs by cars, e.g. end of Jeddo road. - The signs say 'Except permit holders SC-2', our permit is for CPI I, however I cannot find any information online parking about an 'SC-2' permit (including H&F's map of CPZ's). So I'm unsure whether this even is a type of residents' permit and haven't been able to verify whether our permit covers this. The parking signs inside the area look identical to the ones on the rest of Cobbold Road, just saying Permit Holders 'I'.
After the first PCN, we were 99% sure it was a mistake and that it would be cancelled on appeal (we thought we had driven in the zone more times before this, thankfully not as regularly since my partner doesn't work outside London anymore). We put in an appeal for PCN HZ90877267 on April 2nd with roughly the reasons above (exact wording attached), and received a reply on May 22nd rejecting the appeal. Unfortunately, this was lost in junk mail (and the online portal doesn't indicate anything about the appeal status), so we only found this on May 31st. Because we hadn't seen the rejection, we submitted appeals with similar reasons for PCNs HZ91567039 & HZ91581834 on May 24th.
The appeal response unfortunately doesn't provide any specific reasons for rejection, just 'I do not agree that we should cancel your liability for this PCN'. Also I'm uncertain as to whether the full appeal was read by the adjudicator, as half of the text is missing in the HZ90877267 appeal response document test (there doesn't seem to be a character limit on the appeal submission form).
Full appeal text copied below, along with each PCN, the warning, and the appeal response. Thank you again for the help and apologies for such a long post.
PCN HZ90877267 appealI would like to appeal this penalty charge notice on the grounds that no known contravention took place. Please see my explanation below:
- Firstly I am a resident of 85 Cobbold Road, where incident took place, and I hold a resident parking permit for Zone I (Cobbold Road and the surrounding streets). The restricted zone which I drove through is around 30-40 metres from my house, and is part of the zone I residents parking area. The sign at the start of the restricted area says that residents are exempt from the restrictions.
- Secondly, when the use of physical barriers was being trialled in the area back in the autumn of 2024, I spoke to wardens manning the barriers who said several times that, as a resident permit holder, I was exempt and they allowed me through the barriers.
- Finally, this is the first time that I have received any notice of this contravention. I received a warning notice (dated 06/03, sent 25/03) and the penalty charge notice (dated 13/03, sent 28/03) on the same day (29/03), meaning that I could not have been able to action the warning before being charged with the penalty itself. Had I received the warning beforehand, I would not have driven down the road again at the restricted time.
The three reasons above demonstrate that either a) I have not committed a contravention due to being a resident, b) that I was given contradictory information by H&F council employees that suggested that I could go through the restricted area, or c) that I was not given adequate time to heed the warning sent out. I ask that you please consider my representation for these reasons, and I would also appreciate some clarification on the rules around residents driving in the restricted area, so that this issue can be resolved.
PCNs HZ91567039 & HZ91581834 appealI would like to appeal this penalty charge notice on the grounds that no known contravention took place. Please see my explanation below:
- Firstly, until 22nd May 2025 I was a resident of 85 Cobbold Road, where incident took place, and I held a resident parking permit for Zone I (Cobbold Road and the surrounding streets). I have since moved to a different CPZ within the borough. The restricted zone which I drove through is directly adjacent (around 30-40 metres) from my old house on Cobbold Road, and is part of the zone I residents parking area. The sign at the start of the restricted area says that residents are exempt from the restriction.
- Secondly, when the use of physical barriers was being trialled in the area back in the autumn of 2024, I spoke to wardens manning the barriers who said several times that, as a resident permit holder, I was exempt and they allowed me through the barriers.
- Finally, in April I received a warning and penalty notice for the same offence (both of which arrived by letter to my house on the same day), which I appealed and asked for some clarification on the rules, however I have not yet heard back. I am still unsure as to whether I am allowed to drive through the restricted zone.
The three reasons above demonstrate that either a) I have not committed a contravention due to being a resident, b) that I was given contradictory information by H&F council employees that suggested that I could go through the restricted area, or c) I am still unsure as to whether I am allowed to drive through the restricted area and cannot find any information online, except the map (attached) that appears to suggest that residents can enter the restricted area. I ask that you please consider my representation for these reasons, and I would also appreciate some clarification on the rules around residents driving in the restricted area, so that this issue can be resolved.
Street view of our address and start of restricted area (though last taken in August 2024, seems to be just before restrictions were added):
https://maps.app.goo.gl/mpPukoSrqHYkiJ8m7Penalty charge warning:
PCN#1:
PCN#2:
PCN#3:
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
