Hi all, I am a newbie here looking for help. I am registered disabled with blue badges and I rarely get any fines. However, I received an unexpected £130 PCN for a 53J and after some research I appealed it but the appeal has been rejected as I have received a Notice of Rejection. I was going to pay it today with the 50% discount but my gut instinct tells me not to pay it as other drivers have gone to tribunals and adjudicators decisions have gone in the drivers favour and their PCN's have been cancelled if you know what I mean.
(I have not personally gone back to the area of the alleged contravention as to be honest I am a bit nervous of getting any more fines for driving in Newham but I have photographic evidence from google and other members from the area & screenshots of a member from pepipoo.com username waqasr (Mohammad Waquas Rafiq) who went to tribunal and had his fine cancelled with your help)
Please see the following onedrive link with includes of the PCN, Notice of Rejection, Video of me turning into Henderson Road along with photos referring to the similar case with Mohammad Waquas Rafiq also included for your convenience.
https://1drv.ms/f/s!AkIUnVGJxSJ8i1EXC-bfHCPG2f8VMy rejected appeal was as follows:
Dear Sir/Madam,
I would like to appeal my penalty charge and I shall explain the circumstances surrounding the alleged offence.
Firstly let me add that I am registered disabled and my car is also registered as disabled with the DVLA.
Let me assure you that in all my 41 years of driving I have never correctly received a ticket of any kind as I am a very considerate and cautious driver. There recently was an incorrect PCN issued to me for entering Keppel Road E6. This board was placed correctly therefore I was able to read it from a distance and see that there were restrictions in place but disabled drivers were exempt. Even though my car is registered disabled I was still issued a PCN which I then had to challenge and this was accepted as an error by yourselves.
On 7th November at approximately 3.10pm I made a left turn on to Henderson Road from Katherine Road. I tried to read the wording on a new sign but could not read all of it because the wording is only readable once you turn into Henderson Road. I had not seen any advance signs of changes on approach to Henderson Road.
The wording on the sign is neither clearly visible or readable from Katherine Road due to the placement being at such an acute angle for drivers driving along Katherine Road. If one of the two signs were to be slightly angled and facing towards a driver turning left from Katherine Road then it might be readable from a distance.
Once I had turned into Henderson Road and seen there was a restriction board very similar to the one on Keppel Road E6, I had already passed the sign so assumed it was the same as the new sign on Keppel Road.
The new sign is parallel to Henderson Road and you can only really see it once you turn left into the road and therefore does not give the driver an opportunity to decide whether they are allowed to enter or not.
The contravention did not occur. This situation has arisen due to poorly designated signage and insufficient notice/warning of the restriction in question and due to the lack of time given to read the new sign turning in from Katherine Road. I had already turned left onto Henderson Road before I could read some of the information on the new sign. The only way anyone could read and understand all the information on the sign (due to the acute angle) is if they had already previously read the sign and knew the new restrictions that were in place.
This means that the only way I would have know what all the wording on the sign is is to actually park my car somewhere and walk up to the sign and read it. Or just wait until a PCN arrives in the post.
Please take note that these new signs & restrictions are extremely confusing as the sign on Keppel Road exempts disabled and this sign on Henderson Road does not exempt disabled.
I am from a different area and only visit Newham every 2 to 3 months for some shopping and this time being Diwali shopping. I am sure you will agree that this is definitely a new restriction that is in place and there are no advance warnings on the approach to Henderson Road indicating the new restrictions that are in place.
This means that I had no prior warning to the fact that a change had been implemented on Henderson Road and I do not live in that neighbourhood so when these changes were implemented I was never consulted nor informed.
Also, if one of the two new signs on the corner of Henderson Road were mounted at a reasonable readable angle for vehicles turning left from Katherine Road then it would be a totally different scenario and then I would accept this as a mistake.
Furthermore, the signs at the entrance to Henderson Road have too much information on them and cannot be fully read as you turn left. There just isn't enough time as you drive in to view and read the signage without stopping. There are no advance warning signs indicating you have made this change.
Scientifically, any human brain would struggle to process the extensive instructions on the new signs in the short time frame when turning into Henderson Road.
You can clearly see from your own camera footage (PCN evidence), that whilst turning left I slowed right down to try and read the new sign but it was too late by the time I had read some of the sign at entrance of the street, I was already on it and I assumed that as disabled that I was exempt. This is not acceptable as neither my eyes nor my vision can read wording on a sign which is not facing me whilst driving. Both new signs are at a 90 degree angle and facing away from Katherine Road and therefore impossible to read whilst driving on Katherine Road.
So to sum up what actually happened was that I had already turned left onto Henderson Road when I could even try reading the new sign. At that point I could not reverse back onto Katherine Road as the Highway Code clearly teaches us never to do that as its very dangerous. Nor could I do a 3 point turn on the one way street and a space that is used by pedestrians. I did not see that I had any choice other than to slowly continue driving ahead and risk getting this ticket. We all know that safety comes first and I could not see any way to safely get out of Henderson Road other than to go straight ahead.
I believe that you should have some sort of signpost warning of this change/time restrictions as I am certain I can't have been the only person this has ever happened to. Other people might reverse back onto Katherine Road but I would never break a Highway Code law purposely so this was not an option for me.
I am wondering if the person reading this is familiar with the area as I returned to Katherine Road to take some photographs from the same route as I had on the day of the offence so that you may understand what I'm explaining about the fact that there is no warning that Henderson Road has new restrictions in place.
I hope that after reading this explanation and seeing your own evidence that you will kindly agree to cancel the PCN on this occasion, as this was a genuine and unprecedented error and not at all an act of an intended offence.
I also hope that now that I have highlighted this issue, advance signage will be corrected asap.
Thank you for your time.
Kind regards,
Dhiresh Taank
