Free Traffic Legal Advice
Live cases legal advice => Speeding and other criminal offences => Topic started by: Mark6 on August 18, 2025, 12:07:06 am
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Do you have the timeline activated in Google maps?
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Absent any evidence that would tend to contradict your version of events, I would suggest that your evidence would have to come across as particularly unconvincing for the bench to find beyond any reasonable doubt that you did not enter from the BOAT.
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Thanks for that disgruntchelt
I cant see how it can't stand in my favour and this is what I'm getting concerned about when standing up in court
In my eyes its a no brainer that the ticket should be dropped.
I can't see how they can even enforce this area as it simply isn't signed adequately
What I'm concerned about is whether they can say: 'We don't believe you came from Willingham Lane as you have no proof so this ticket stands'
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The issue you have is that you passed a repeater before you were snapped.
Another issue is that will a judge believe you didn’t know the local area but knew it well enough to travel down what appears to be a farm track which conveniently just happens not to have a terminal sign on it?
If you do take it to court refer to the by way by its name rather than referring to it as a byway
Apologies for not acknowledging this disgruntchelt
I hadn't passed a repeater when his blue lights came on.
I think the second I became visible to the officer in his car with his 'Unipar laser' he blue lighted. At that moment I was thinking he was going to speed off to an emergency, until he started following me so I pulled over.
I would 100% bring this up in court as I feel this is also an important factor that plays in my favour
Fair enough about the repeater, I missed that you hadn’t passed it.
If you mean you’ll call it by way in court rather than Willingham Lane I think it would hurt your defence. Saying I came along Willingham Lane and didn’t pass any 30 sign and the TRO fails to mention Willingham Lane at all in terms of where the limit starts or any signs it plays better imho.
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The issue you have is that you passed a repeater before you were snapped.
Another issue is that will a judge believe you didn’t know the local area but knew it well enough to travel down what appears to be a farm track which conveniently just happens not to have a terminal sign on it?
If you do take it to court refer to the by way by its name rather than referring to it as a byway
Apologies for not acknowledging this disgruntchelt
I hadn't passed a repeater when his blue lights came on.
I think the second I became visible to the officer in his car with his 'Unipar laser' he blue lighted. At that moment I was thinking he was going to speed off to an emergency, until he started following me so I pulled over.
I would 100% bring this up in court as I feel this is also an important factor that plays in my favour
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And thank you Southpaw82 for the 'envelope defence' advice, going to google it now
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Is there any reason you keep writing “BYWAY” all in caps? It makes my teeth itch.
Do some googling for the “envelope defence” - IIRC, the defence doesn’t work if there is an “entrance” that isn’t properly signed but that wasn’t the one you used. It stands to reason that if you did use an “unsigned” entrance then the defence ought to be available to you.
Apologies, It's just a habit as the sites always seem to mention byways in capitals
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Here is Lincolnshire Council TRO map of the BYWAY joining the highway
https://ibb.co/vvhqGmTn
Linwood village clearly shows the 30mph limit
BYWAY Willingham lane is blank, so assume no TRO
Therefore, as there is no street lighting, doesn't the law say national speed limit of 60mph unless signs state otherwise?
This link is the live TRO map for Lincolnshire - https://lincolnshire.statmap.co.uk/tro/map.html?login=tro_public
Market Rasen is at approx 20 degree up right when scrolling out from Lincoln
Again thanks for the help
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Is there any reason you keep writing “BYWAY” all in caps? It makes my teeth itch.
Do some googling for the “envelope defence” - IIRC, the defence doesn’t work if there is an “entrance” that isn’t properly signed but that wasn’t the one you used. It stands to reason that if you did use an “unsigned” entrance then the defence ought to be available to you.
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The issue you have is that you passed a repeater before you were snapped.
Another issue is that will a judge believe you didn’t know the local area but knew it well enough to travel down what appears to be a farm track which conveniently just happens not to have a terminal sign on it?
If you do take it to court refer to the by way by its name rather than referring to it as a byway
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Since this stretch has no streetlighting a TRO would be required to make it a 30mph limit. Have you examined that to see whether it mentions the byway? If the byway was a normal road I imagine any TRO would mention where on it the 30mph limit begins (e.g. “50 metres from the junction with the Council Houses Road”).
That doesn't help with the lack of signage, but if the byway isn't mentioned it will strengthen your argument that it has been "forgotten" when imposing the limit.
Am I likely to be fined more for wasting a judges time?
It's more than likely that you will have to convince a Bench of three "lay" magistrates rather than a judge.
The guideline fine for the offence is one week’s net income. A guilty plea would see that reduced by a third, so obviously if you are found guilty following a trial you will lose that discount. As well as that, a guilty plea would see prosecution costs of around £90, but conviction following a trial will see that increase to around £650. You will also pay a “victim surcharge” of 40% of any fine imposed.
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https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/Byway_Open_to_All_Traffic
According to this, a BOAT BYWAY has all the legal standing as an 'All purpose road' and they can have TRO's
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Thank you for the help so far
On this basis, with me pleading not guilty, due to no signage on BYWAY entrance, and no street lights, making me assume national speed limit
Am I likely to be fined more for wasting a judges time?
Or could this potentially play in my favour by being able to explain to the judge the confusion, and why I pleaded not guilty?
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I've followed the GSV images and the village is clearly signed with '30' terminal signs at each end. There is no streetlighting so '30' repeaters would normally be provided and I don't see any (though they are not, IIRC, mandatory).
The issue is whether the "byway" requires terminal signs and I don't know whether it does or not. Obviously something like a long private driveway wouldn't.
If it does I think you have a defence.
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This image is coming into the village from the other direction
I'm not 100% sure you could call this 'clearly signed' given the foliage present
https://ibb.co/B5Y51pQm
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Link below is the start of the 30mph stretch when coming up to the village/ByWay junction
https://ibb.co/GvZJyxtT
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Thank you
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See this guide: Posting images (https://www.ftla.uk/announcements/posting-images/msg42933/#new)
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I also have picture of all entrances and repeater signs, but can't see any icons available to allow me to attach them to this post
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This link is where the unmarked police car was parked
https://www.google.com/maps/@53.3643021,-0.3338067,3a,75y,317.06h,72.54t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sn4wrAE1Qh1n3vmjTnIFuyw!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D17.461811322754727%26panoid%3Dn4wrAE1Qh1n3vmjTnIFuyw%26yaw%3D317.06054220140345!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDgxMy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
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Thank you everyone for helping with this.
Link -
https://www.google.com/maps/@53.3647742,-0.3295628,3a,75y,293.45h,79.3t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s8Lobl-H6YsndkaQxyBSCDw!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D10.70045019244327%26panoid%3D8Lobl-H6YsndkaQxyBSCDw%26yaw%3D293.4532348488834!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDgxMy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
Link is the end of the byway facing the village
The Village is Linwood Village
The BYWAY is called Willingham Lane
Really appreciate the help
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I believe I could receive 4-9 points...
The legislation allows for 3-6 points (or a ban). The guideline for that speed suggests a ban of 7-28 days or 4-6 points.
As above, a gsv link might help.
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Have you got a streetview link of the area so we can take a look?
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If your proposed evidence relates to the visibility of signage (or lack thereof) and a TRO map, then it might be useful to show these here so that members can advise.
A link to the area on Google Maps may similarly be helpful.
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Hi there,
I'm hoping someone can help with advice regards what I feel is quite a unique speeding case
I have been caught doing 50mph in a 30 mph zone which I admitted to, so have received a SJPN, but there is more to it
Basically, I was speeding on a motorcycle in a small village of approx. 8 houses in Lincolnshire, no street lighting, and the national speed limit drops from 60 to 30 just before entering the village and just after leaving it
On the first bend to the village, just after the 30 signs there is a joining BYWAY of BOAT classification(according to a BYWAY MAP) and according to a friend who regularly goes 'Green Laning' down here
Now, I have cycled this BYWAY as part of a cycle route probably 50 times since moving to a nearby village approx 4 years ago, it starts at a golf club where I regularly go, which has a 60mph speed limit highway here, and ends within the village
Every time I cycle this route I leave the BYWAY, onto the highway heading home, due to this all I ever see on this stretch of road is 'national speed limit signs' when leaving the village, so my 'local knowledge' would be that I thought this stretch of road is 60mph, prior to this I have never driven 'through' the village
So on this day, I went to the golf club, the road had been resurfaced and it was shocking how much excess gravel was on the road. As I was on a motorcycle and this is a countryside lane I was driving at 10mph max between car tyre tracks, and a Range rover overtook me dangerously, throwing gravel up, hitting my almost brand new bike
It was because of this I decided to take the BYWAY route I was familiar with, which to be honest was a stupid decision, but either way 80% of the BYWAY is safer to travel than the condition of the road I came on
So basically, I entered the village off the BYWAY, You don't see any 30mph signs, I assumed due to no street lighting it was 60mph, and got caught doing what I thought was 10mph under the limit, but actually 20mph over the limit
The issuing officer has put on the SJPN that there is adequate signage on both entrances, which there is, but I don't think he realises that the track from the bend is another entrance that's a BOAT BYWAY, and there is no signage here to say you are entering a 30mph zone
Where the officer was parked was after the bend so he didn't know where I came from, he put from 'the general direction' of...
Now to be honest he was very professional, I argued I hadn't seen any signs, he was admant there was, I questioned signage and TRO's(I used to work in Highways) but I didn't disclose where I came from, as prior to this notice I wasn't 100% sure if I should have been using this BYWAY. At the time I was just going by my friends word of mouth that this was a 'green lane' and I've probably only seen him, a couple of other motocross riders, a Land Rover that looked like a farmer was driving it inspecting the fields and other cars parked with steamy windows.
I've pleaded 'not guilty' to the SJPN so I can explain my case
I genuinely believe a BYWAY joining a HIGHWAY has to show the speed limit at the junction, but it doesn't
The officer put his blue lights on the very second he see me doing 50 just after the corner, by this time I hadn't passed a repeater sign of '30mph'
The officer states there were 'multiple repeater signs in place' - There are 2 within the village, the one facing my direction was on the other side of the road and I hadn't seen it yet, the other is at he other end, and its leaning over facing 45 degree away from the highway
The officer put on his statement he was parked on the 'entrance of a farm track', it's actually a driveway to a house
I don't want to nit-pick these statements in court, but I'm really concerned about them believing I came down the BYWAY, not the HIGHWAY, as the motorbike I was on is almost brand new and not exactly a 'green laning' bike, its a sports bike, as I have only just acquired my licence
Can anyone please advise on how to approach this?
I'm seriously considering paying for a solicitor
I believe I could receive 4-9 points and up to a £1000 fine if I'm wrong about the BYWAY needing signage as I'm struggling to find a paragraph in the TSRGD about BYWAYS
I have taken pictures of all entrances
Have downloaded a BYWAY map that shows the BYWAY is named and of BOAT classification
I've downloaded the local councils TRO MAP
i'M just not sure if this has any legal standing in court if I self represent at court?
Any advice much appreciated