I plan to upload this as my 'evidence' today.
I am familiar with this box junction and with all box junctions I am very cautious. I follow Rule 174 of the Highway code, i.e., You MUST NOT ENTER the box until your exit road or lane is clear.
On this occasion I recall ensuring I had a clear exit before I enter the box. My exit was impeded by circumstances beyond my control, some but not all of which are captured in the limited Redbridge video evidence.
It is my understanding that the Videalert-RDS CCTV camera used at this junction is unattended and automatically captures images of a stationery vehicle and the system subsequently produces the evidence for review.
The CCTV Operator (Nahid Adnan) in his witness statement believes that the captured footage confirms the contravention of ‘entering and stopping whilst prohibited’. I believe he has only been able to review the automatically produced video that they have provided to me on their website and the very same video in their evidence pack and that he did not witness the alleged contravention in real-time.
The Parking Technician (Shaz Aziz) writes in the Council’s Summary of Representation that they are confident the contravention has occurred, they state:
‘as you will see from the CCTV footage the vehicle enters whilst the appellants exit is not clear.’
The assertions of the CCTV Operator and the Parking Technician are not evident in the Redbridge video footage. If there is an extended version of the video it has not been provided.
The “prohibition” is that of “causing a vehicle to enter..” followed by the consequence. It is the entering into the box junction which constitutes the contravention, once the vehicle has had to stop.
The video evidence does not cover the entry to the box, or me coming to a halt. The key evidence is missing. I cannot understand how the CCTV Operator or the Parking Technician can be ‘confident’ and assert the contravention occurred if they don’t have evidence of the state of the traffic as I decide to enter the box.
I needed to be in the left hand lane at the lights up ahead. On entry the exit was clear but I recall at least one car up ahead moving from the left hand lane to the right hand lane. It then became apparent to me that there was a stricken vehicle in the left hand lane and these vehicles are moving to avoid the stricken vehicle. Whilst carefully assessing the situation two cars have approached from the left.
The driver of the blue car has taken my hesitation as an invitation to proceed, the orange car also proceeds to leave the side road and on seeing the broken down car decides to stop and block the exit from the box.
I reversed very slowly and carefully to avoid blocking the junction. My intent was to reverse out of the box but a car behind arrives and blocks my exit.
I have not impeded the flow of traffic in any direction as evidenced in the CCTV video and decided it was safer to stop until the traffic ahead has cleared.
The video evidence does not prove the contravention and does not match the words used by Redbridge. On these grounds I ask for the appeal to be allowed.
