Free Traffic Legal Advice
Live cases legal advice => Civil penalty charge notices (Councils, TFL and so on) => Topic started by: ferrical_motorway on May 19, 2025, 02:35:17 pm
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The key fact is that nowhere on the signs one sees on approach to t his roundabout is there any information about the timed restriction. There are signs stating "camera enforcement" but these have nothing on them to indicate why this is needed. Basically, they have failed in their duty under LATOR Regulation 18. The signs must convey the TRO restriction to motorists, but they don't, because the times are omitted. As I recall, Carl Teper of London Tribunals picked on this.
However, no matter how many wins at LT there are, there is nothing that could force the council to improve the signage, and obviously they prefer not to do this as they will be making shedloads of money from the restriction.
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There are numerous allowed appeals on the tribunal site for this one and search also for cases on FTLA.
Not all appeals are allowed though and there seems to be disagreement by some adjudicators.
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I was driving on Gallions Roundabout at 22:04 on 3 May 2025 (the Saturday of the bank holiday weekend), approaching from the north on the A1020 Royal Docks Road and I turned right (fourth exit) onto Royal Albert Way.
(Although just to note that I actually took the wrong exit initially, taking the third exit for the UEL Docklands Campus and then turning around, rejoining the roundabout and then using the first exit for Royal Albert Way).
As I approached the roundabout, I noted the sign indicating the A1020 to the right, intending to go that way. There was no indication on the main sign that this road was sometimes under restriction. I went back three days later and noted that there is a smaller yellow sign indicating that "Royal Albert Way closed when signs are displayed". And a yellow roundabout sign indicating "Traffic camera enforcement at Royal Albert Way". Confusingly though, this latter sign did not have the same layout as the main road sign, showing the Royal Albert Way exit at 235 degrees rather than the 270 degrees of the previous sign and I didn't know that the road I was intending to use was called Royal Albert Way either, as I don't live in that area. As far as I knew the road I was intending to take was a main A road and the main street sign gave no clue it was sometimes closed.
There were road works going on at the time, and each exit of the roundabout could only be reached by passing through a lane of cones (unfortunately I don't have a photograph of this). So I took the lane with cones for the Royal Albert Way exit, but then didn't see the "no motor vehicles" sign (which is a changing sign made up of LEDs) until it was already too late and there was nowhere else for me to go except to continue on to the road.
I went back three days later and took some photographs of the area (at the time I visited, the restriction was not in effect and the LED "no motor vehicles" sign was showing "40 mph" instead). It also seems the cones that had been on the roundabout at the time I was caught were not in the same configuration as I remembered them.
Here are some pics:
The PCN:
https://imgur.com/YRkS4eg
StreetView of the exit from the roundabout where I was caught: https://maps.app.goo.gl/UH2GWvoWfa6uPvRW8
Photograph of the exit taken three days later (40 mph in effect at that time rather than no vehicles):
https://imgur.com/uts0LiP
Sign on the A1020 approach to the roundabout from the north, showing A1020 continuing as a right turn 270 degrees:
https://imgur.com/1qQyddt
Yellow sign after the one above, but with different roundabout layout shown, A1020 is now at 235 degrees and not marked as such:
https://imgur.com/hGQRPGC