Free Traffic Legal Advice
Live cases legal advice => Civil penalty charge notices (Councils, TFL and so on) => Topic started by: AnsyLu on October 21, 2023, 09:27:10 pm
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To be honest option 2, or a combination of options 1 & 2, are what I recommend in really hopeless cases.
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Thank you both for your reply, its really appreciated.
Incandescent - I wouldn't take a chance if it meant the risk was losing £65. This isn't a route I take and I didn't realise it was a no right turn. Having looked it up I'm not the first person to fall into this cash cow trap and unfortunately I don't think I will be the last!
CP8759 - Thank you for uploading the video. I think I may opt for option 1 on the plea of discretion. Normally, I'd be willing to go all out with the council (ie Option 2) but I don't think I have much of a chance of winning giving that my reason was that I really did not see the sign :-\
Thank you both again
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Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VfCe5YwORg
It doesn't sound like you have a defence on the merits, so there are only two possible strategies:
1) Make a plea for discretion, or
2) Try and trip the council up into failing to consider your representations.
Strategy 1 involves appealing to the authority's discretionary power not to enforce, which is a power only the council has (the tribunal cannot allow an appeal on this basis).
Strategy 2 involves giving the council a link to a video or image you want them to consider, and setting it up view a click / view counter so we can prove whether they're looked at your supporting evidence. If they fail to look at it, you can then win on a failure to consider.
The best approach might be to combine both approaches (provide evidence of mitigation by means of a link), but first we need to know if you have any meaningful mitigation to put forwards.
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So essentially, reading your narrative, you chanced your arm, knowing there was a "No Right Turn" restriction, and lost, correct ?
Their sole evidence of the alleged contravention is their video. Please download it and post it here.
To be honest, I can't see a road blockage on turning into Farmilo Road supporting an appeal against a 'no right turn' offence in Lea Bridge Road, but no harm in putting it in, but its very weak. If Farmilo Road was blocked at its junction with Markhouse Road, there would surely be a diversion, else how would residents on that road get in and out ? THe obvious diversion would be to turn right into Boundary Road, the next street after Farmilo Road and then next right into Boundary Avenue which brings you into Farmilo Road
So, to be frank, I see nothing that suggests a winning appeal at London Tribunals on your actual contravention (don't expect the council to concede, they won't).
So is there a technical appeal ? Well, all sorts of things can win appeals once a detailed investigation is done. Sometimes it turns up trumps and sometimes not. You'd be looking at, (inter alia): -
- an error in the PCN,
- error in the traffic order establishing the 'no right turn' restriction.
- camera authorisation issue.
- whether Waltham Forest are authorised to issue PCNs for this offence, if TfL are the authority for Lea Bridge Road.
I don't see any errors in the PCN, but others may come up with something in the other things I have noted. The important point to make is that with these sort of arguments, you usually end up at London Tribunals with the full PCN penalty in play.
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Dear kind folks,
I received a PCN today for a prohibited right turn from Lea bridge Road on to Theobald Road. I know via a search on the pepipoo forum there have been two similar cases.
My excuse? Honestly, the road parallel to Lea Bridge road (Farmilo Road) was blocked off because of water works so I took a turn here instead to bypass the road block.
I feel I have two options: either raise that there was a partial road closure on the road parallel and hope for the best or i could attempt to veer down appealing on some technical points. Either way an appeal is always worth it right?
I’ve attached the relevant links below. Would be grateful for any input.
Thank you
Link to PCN: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/lr1v9g8noxykcki5297a2/CamScanner-10-20-2023-21.02.pdf?rlkey=e24a6nuvv62042zituz8mlr0v&dl=0
Link to picture on approach to the junction: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/zod851xeivrr5j841y44r/6BD0A932-C1BC-458E-AAC6-67DD01C43A29.png?rlkey=7g6phpe214iocsej813vebyxm&dl=0