Free Traffic Legal Advice

Hi Incandescent.

My only defense is that I am resident of 10 years and I have held the long term belief that this has always been a single yellow line as is the convention on the streets surrounding me. I.e I didn't arrive out of the blue one day and find a road that looked on the surface like a double yellow and chance it. In my situation I moved to a street 10 years ago that was marked like this and believed that the old line had been covered up and relined as a single yellow still. I've probably parked in this exact spot maybe 2 or 3 times a week for the last 10 years and never once questioned that it was a single line.




Do you not think the Google Street view photo history that I shared in my first post would support the argument that I as a resident believed I was parked on a single line and would an argument be likely to win an appeal?

I can see from the photos that the enforcement officer took that in isolation it may look like a car parked on a double yellow but when you look at the line without a car parked over it is there any argument that it wouldn't be clear to a reasonable driver if it was actually a double yellow or a single yellow that had been poorly maintained?



Having examined it quite closely now I think that it was a single line originally lined wide from the kerb to avoid the grate and then covered over and relined at a 'normal' distance to the kerb. The two line vary in width from each other as well so it's not like a freshly marked perfectly parallel line. To me this is a confusing marking of it was indeed intentionally lined this way to be a double. I'm not sure if you or anyone else knows if there are prescribed widths/distances for double yellows or a standardised way to note a transition from single to yellow? And if there's perhaps a loophole of some kind in situations where lines are poorly marked that might be successful at an appeal perhaps?

Is there any obligation on the council to maintain lines clearly? Does it being faded help me at all?


I don't want to waste my time and money if this is not going to be an argument I'll win but truthfully I genuinely thought it always was (and still is) a single yellow line!

I received a PCN for parking on a yellow line on a restricted residential street which I appealed on the grounds that I was parked on a single yellow line outside of the restricted hours and that I believed the civil enforcement officer had made a genuine error. I got a letter back from Greenwich council stating that I was parked on a double yellow line and so the PCN would not be cancelled.

I genuinely don't think this is a double yellow line.

I have lived and parked on this road for a decade and have always believed this to be a single yellow line that had been mispainted as they went round the curve of the junction and never fixed. The opposite side of the street and all the surrounding streets are single yellow lines at the junctions, the two lines don't run exactly in parallel to each other and the transition from one single yellow to double yellow at the corner is clumsy and does not look intentionally designed in my view.

I've checked Google Street view which has photos going back to 2012 and believe that the history over the years shows that it was definitely a single line back then and looks to me as though the erroneous second line had been covered over and in the nearly 14 years since seems to have eroded away and become visible again. As a long time resident who has always 'known' this to be a single yellow line I didn't even think it could be considered a double yellow by an enforcement officer and made no argument that it was a single yellow line in my initial appeal to the council.

The letter I've received states that my choices are either to pay the discounted fee or pursue a formal appeals process but that I would lose the right to pay a discounted rate if I appealed again. What would be my best course of action? I have emailed the parking design team at the council asking for confirmation that this section is a double yellow as claimed but I'm not optimistic they'll respond within the 14 days I have to pay the discount. Would a formal appeal with the evidence I have be likely to succeed?
I would pay the discount if I'm in the wrong but I just can't see how this is a legitimate double yellow myself! Would also welcome any advice on how I might be able to confirm if a junction has double or single yellows. Is information like this publicly available? Should I ask my local councillor for help? All advice much appreciated!

Hopefully images shared below but will try and fix if links aren't copied correctly.