Free Traffic Legal Advice

I live on a residential street with no parking restriction signs but there are confusing double yellow lines in places. Some years ago the pavement was narrowed or road widened to create parking bays. However, existing double yellow lines were incompletely removed (in one section they have been burnt off, but other sections presumably cars were parked when the team came to burn them off). To make matters worse there's a section where there is a double yellow line painted alongside the pavement of the bay, and an old double yellow left on the road where the pavement used to be. So you end up parking in a bay with double yellows either side of you. The double yellow lines (which are all quite faded) are as shown - there is a termination bar on the right of where you would park (assuming facing direction of travel) but not on the left in the section where there are parallel double lines. See image below.

Now, being a residential street people park wherever there is a space. 99.9% of the time that's fine, but occasionally a parking warden comes along and tickets cars parked in positions A or C. If a local resident sees them we point out the idiocy of the parking lines and they generally accept it's an error. We have even had a council surveyor come out who said none the street was officially recorded as being restricted so the wardens shouldn't be issuing tickets. But I don't have written confirmation of that.

The wardens have been out again lately and cars parked in positions A and C have been ticketed for being "parked in a restricted street during prescribed hours". I have no idea what the prescribed hours are as there are no signs and I was led to believe the street was not restricted.  How can we both challenge this and prevent recurrence?
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I'm not seeking a discussion for the sake of it, I'm seeking to challenge this PCN and prevent any further PCNs in these spaces (A and C) on the grounds that the parking indications are meaningless and incorrect.

The text of the PCN is as follows:

(Redacted local authority)
(Redacted PCN number)
Served on 9/5/2025
By Civil enforcement officer (Redacted identify)

Who had reason to believe that the following contravention had occurred and that a penalty charge is now payable.
01
Parked in a restricted street during prescribed hours

Date of contravention: 9/5/2005
Time: 14:49
Location:
(Redacted road name and district)

Vehicle registration: (Redacted)
Vehicle make: (Redacted)
Vehicle colour: (Redacted)
Observed from: 14:43
Observed to: 14:49
Pay and display ticket: no
Pay and display expiry time (blank)

A penalty charge of £70 is now payable and must be paid not later than the last day of the period of 28 days beginning with the date on which this PCN was served.

The penalty charge will be reduced by a discount of 450% to £35 if it is paid not later than the last day of the period of 14 days beginning with the date on which this PCN was served.

Details on reverse for how to pay, etc etc

Is this enough?

https://www.google.com/maps/@52.4483075,-1.8669803,3a,75y,318.79h,72.08t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s5qczKBjEdoFFi9b22js_0Q!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D17.918635596339158%26panoid%3D5qczKBjEdoFFi9b22js_0Q%26yaw%3D318.79167266577156!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDUwNy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

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Park Road Sparkhill.
Here is the latest GSV
https://maps.app.goo.gl/BC2cfpHEjv622ek88

It would appear you need to obtain any relevant TMO/TRO
https://tro.trafficpenaltytribunal.gov.uk/birmingham/

We have even had a council surveyor come out who said none the street was officially recorded as being restricted

Subject to what the experts here say (I am not one) you could challenge along the lines of
I believe the alleged contravention did not occur as I have been advised by a council official that there is no TRO in place for this road.
Should you be minded to reject, I require you to produce the relevant TRO.....

Have the Council put any photos up yet? If so, please post them here.

Thanks - road must have briefly been narrowed/pavement widened shortly before 2008 (covering the original yellow lines and painting new ones). In 2012 the new pavement covering the road and previous double yellows would have been removed (it's unclear to me if the 2012 photo shows cuts in the road where the extra pavement would have been dug out from, or a crude attempt at indicating that part of the road is now to be a parking bay but these have long since faded. Also the double yellows are not continuous and don't have a perpendicular bar on the kerb side.)  This would explain why the furthest double yellows are so faded - they must have been covered by a thin layer of stones and tarmac for that four year period). The fresher yellows were left behind on one side of the junction, and partially burnt away (except around parked cars) on the other side of the junction, position B on earlier schematic).

Hardly surprising everyone ignores them as they are completely pointless, but how should I challenge a non-enforceable but possibly non-rescinded TRO? I took a look at the previous link to Birmingham TROs but there are over a hundred impenetrable documents there and of the ones that looked possibly relevant ie street parking, in only a few cases were any roads listed by name.

On a separate matter, I found at least one old TRO which included photocopies of letters sent to named individuals regarding the illegal parking of their cars many years ago, complete with the car reg and name and address of registered keepers. Surely that's a breach of information governance, and certainly shows that noone reads these documents now!

Anyway, that aside, I would appreciate advice both on challenging this PCN and ensuring that future parking in this spot is not going to risk further ticketing.

Bit of an update.

Incidentally I didn't draw the plan to scale in the first diagram. Section A is one car length and section B (in which the lines have been completely burnt off and are practically invisible) is five car lengths going right to the end of that bay. Section C (where I was ticketed) is four car lengths.

So I asked for, and received by email, a copy of the TRO dated 2014, ie after the pavement was cut back to creat the bay. Inexplicably, the entire stretch of road covering A, B and C is marked as restricted parking at any time! This despite the lines having been completely removed from B except around one car length A where a car must surely have been parked when the workers came to remove the lines. So had I parked at B I could have been ticketed, but there is no indication of it being restricted.

A neighbour of mine then told me he had been ticketed in the exact same place as me, C, a few year ago. He appealed successfully on the grounds of confusing yellow lines.

Any further suggestions for how to approach this? There is no possible rationale for having yellow lines anywhere along this stretch of road, yet there is a restriction in force according to the TRO. Despite that the lines have been completely burnt off along one of the two restricted stretches of the road which begs questions around why they were burnt off yet the TRO not updated, or why they were burnt off when there's a TRO in force.

Update.

I pointed out in my appeal to the council the inconsistent, confusing and contradictory yellow lines that are not in accordance with the transport manual, the advice from previous wardens that they are very obviously a legacy mistake that got partially but not fully removed years ago, and that previous tickets given to other residents who have parked in this short stretch have been overturned at their first appeal.

My appeal has been rejected on the grounds that the double yellow markings are clearly marked so I should not have parked there. I remain liable for the fine therefore.

What should my next steps be? Paying up certainly isn't an option as it sets a precedent for ticketing cars parked on a stretch of road that has no possible justification for a restriction inside a parking bay, and illogical signage at that.

a stretch of road that has no possible justification for a restriction inside a parking bay, and illogical signage at that.

It's not and never was a parking bay.

Whether a motorist thinks that a restriction is illogical is not an issue for an adjudicator.

IMO,

According to you, there is a restriction in a TRO;
DYL are marked to indicate this restriction;
Whether these are placed at the edge of the carriageway alone or, through error, in the traffic lane would not persuade an adjudicator IMO;
DYL apply to the whole road from centreline to building line and this is where you were parked;
There are NO contra indicators e.g. parking place signage.

You might continue and through their embarrassment get this PCN cancelled by them(but as above, the authority's embarrassment wouldn't sway an adjudicator) but I wouldn't push it further by continuing to park there