Author Topic: Tower Hamlets, Code 81 parked in a restricted area in a car park, Roman road Rogers estate, double yellow lines  (Read 146 times)

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Hi All,

I received two PCNs in August 2025 for parking on double yellow lines in my estate car park.





At the time I did not have an allocated bay and the council were in the process of taking over the management of enforcement from a private company. The council said that there would be no enforcement till 01/10/2025 (I’m in Bethnal Green east ward). This was stated on their website, social media and a notice that was put up on the entrance to our estate.

https://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/lgnl/housing/Council-Tenants-and-Leaseholders/Estate-Management/Estate-parking.aspx





I had a meeting with my Mayor about me needing a bay (due to personal circumstances) and that I was parking on double yellow lines. The Mayor then contacted the head of parking on our behalf and we received a letter saying to park as we currently were and there would be no enforcement until the live date. The letter mentioned my wife’s name as she raised it with the Mayor, but she is a named driver on the insurance policy so hopefully that won’t be an issue.



No where on the council sites or letters was it said that parking on double yellow lines was not allowed and not included when they mention ‘no enforcement’.

I raised an informal challenge on the council portal explaining all this and giving the evidence above. The status of the PCN was ‘On Hold: Challenge Received’ and a date next to it that was roughly over 3 months after the challenge was received. Once this date came up the PCN went to a status of ‘Off Hold Compensate’.





I assumed that the challenge was successful as I received no communication and when I checked online for the status it said that the PCN would be cancelled, therefore you can imagine my shock when I received an NTO and for the full amount too not the discounted rate. I feel this is unfair as I never got a response so had no clue if the challenge was accepted or not and now expected to pay the full amount too, was it not supposed to be on hold when being challenged?



Whilst typing up this post I noticed that when raising an informal challenge they asked for address which I did not provide, I missed this when raising the challenge. I assumed they would have the details seeing as they have my number plate and how they were able to send me an NTO to my address. Would this be the reason I received no response and have no other option but to pay the full amount for both PCNs?

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If you have an NtO, you can submit reps against it, just as you did for the PCN, and once again show all the letters etc that you submitted before. If you look on the original PCN, somewhere it will say that a challenge to the PCN will be considered, but if they serve an NtO anyway, then you must responde to the NtO.

Do not ignore this NtO or it will be game over. You can just re-submit what you submitted before.

Yep I will respond to NTO, just wanted to get some advice before I do. Do I have a case to challenge (as they didn't respond to me for the informal challenge) or should I just pay the full amounts?

Yellow lines have no meaning in an off-street car park. A correct contravention here would probably be parking outside bays. A restricted area would be one marked by say cross hatching.

There should be a terms board for the car park - is there?

But with no enforcement until 1/9/25 (not 1/10/25) this must be an easy win.

Draft new reps and post here.

What are the dates of both PCNs.

There are no markings other than bays and double yellow lines.

This is the boards they put up on the estate




My neighbour also challenged his PCN as he had parked similarly on double yellow lines and received a response saying that it didn't matter that bays were not enforced at the time.





I was going to challenge NTO with what I posted above (without the whole not noticing address was required when raising an informal challenge)

Date of contraventions are 15/08/2025 and 24/08/2025 and date of notice on the NTOs are 29/12/2025 and 05/01/2026

They are talking rubbish about double yellow lines as they can only be enforced on-street (and do not establish a restricted area in a car park in my view).

As you can see from the terms board the correct contravention is parking outside bays.

If the car park had no enforcement order at the time nothing in the car park could be enforced.

Don't rush reps as you now know what they'll say so you need to head this off. 

I had a look online and PCNs can be enforced on double yellow lines on car parks. The council site also says this https://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/lgnl/transport_and_streets/roads,_highways_and_pavements/yellow_lines.aspx

I was going to say that no where on the site, social media or notices was it mentioned specifically that parking on double yellow lines would be enforced, only that enforcement would start from 01/09/2025 which gives the impression that there would be no enforcement of any kind until the start date.

Where did you find that yellow lines can be enforced in car parks? Your council link doesn't say so.

The link is a page for yellow lines and has a section that says 'parking on estates owned by the council', I assume they are talking about yellow lines on council estates.

This is the notice of the order and it refers to double yellows thus:

d) ‘At any time’ waiting restrictions (double-yellow lines) will be provided on all kerbside not designated as parking, in these off-street areas (car parks), vehicles would be prohibited from waiting other than in marked out parking bays.

But there's no such contravention off-street as no waiting on a restricted street, so they rely on restricted area - I have seen a couple of recent adjudications where this has been assumed to be correct so let's park that. Someone else may know.

The order for the lines must surely only be in force from the live order date, so that's the way to go.

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/4850148