Free Traffic Legal Advice

Hello brilliant minds,

I received a PCN for entering the London ULEZ along the A13. My passenger and I were planning to turn around before the ULEZ began, so had not expected to pay any charge.*

The location on the PCN is given as "A13 Thames Gateway Off Slip" and the photo shows my vehicle in a right-hand lane without any other (to me) identifying location marks.

The A13 Thames Gateway being the name of a stretch of road with junctions and ANPR cameras both inside and outside the chargeable zone, these details given are not sufficient for me to identify the location. Some searching online didn't help me find the specific ANPR camera used either.

I have in the past been incorrectly issued a PCN for entering Bath ULEZ when I had parked on the street nearby, as the ANPR camera was aimed out of the zone. (I successfully contested that PCN, but had phone location evidence that I hadn't entered. I don't have any records or evidence in this case).

The ambiguity of the location given on this "A13 Thames Gateway Off Slip" PCN made me wonder if it may be possible to contest it as it seems to me, particularly based on my prior experience in Bath, that I have not been shown any evidence I entered the ULEZ. Even if TfL have data on the precise camera location, it does not form part of the document sent to me and is not easily found. Is demonstrating the location of my car beyond "A13 Thames Gateway Off Slip" irrelevant to TfL's pursuit of the charge?

I would appreciate any advice!

* (We were driving to Essex and had joined the road in the wrong direction, but eastbound traffic just after we joined was stopped by a car fire so we continued past the first opportunity to turn around rather than head directly into a standstill. However, the A13 westbound is exempt from the ULEZ for another junction after that).


PCN:

https://imgpile.com/p/g7r7Ko2#cRXl3zj

Map showing ULEZ around A13:

https://imgpile.com/p/g7r7Ko2#DfJ0Nv7

Map showing ANPR camera locations around the start of the zone:

https://imgpile.com/p/g7r7Ko2#SFRbstU

Overview of the Thames Gateway/A13 approaching the ULEZ from the M25:

https://imgpile.com/p/g7r7Ko2#sCSGWd9

Thank you very much for your reply, providing the link to the regulations, and for looking it up on GSV! Indeed I am not local, but knowing the London - Essex region is known as the Thames Gateway I did think that was the name of the A13 generally.

Despite the Street View label, my Google Maps searches for "Thames Gateway" didn't show me that area in results, which is not very joined up of Alphabet! So I found the TfL definitions first.

If TfL for their ANPR camera locations are using the same data as GSV, or any other narrower definition of "Thames Gateway", but not indicating it on their correspondence or making it a searchable result in their own map, I'm not sure even a local could be reasonably expected to know it.

In case anyone else looking for clarity on the road names finds this post: the closest thing I could find to official start and end points comes from the contract TfL drew up to build the Thames Gateway (the DFPO is online). In this, they describe the Thames Gateway as running between Goresbrook Junction (further west than that Marsh Way roundabout on GSV) and the M25 (J30). TfL also have public notices of road closures affecting the Thames Gateway in October and December 2025 including a reference to the Thames Gateway at Wennington, outside the ULEZ, so seem to still use the same name and locations as they did in the contract. That longer stretch Dagenham - M25 is also known as the Thames Gateway with regards to traffic or road updates and roads history.