I have a draft appeal ready ... I must admit I am struggling to word some of it, and I'm *really* struggling with having to write it all with HTML tags! I'm unsure whether to bother with point (3) or not ... I do recall that I was having to navigate in and out of the space between parked vehicles to drive up that road, so I had reduced capacity to focus on restriction signs, but I'm not sure whether that's an effective argument. If anyone has comments on the appeal draft I would love to hear them. Thankyou!
I write to appeal against penalty notice GR23113012 on the following grounds:
1. Familiarity with old system (no restrictions). I have been driving in Greenwich for decades but this was the first time I had driven through this road since the new restrictions were put in place. I had no idea the road was restricted and there were no advance warnings.2. There are acknowledged problems with the implementation of the new restricted zones in Greenwich, of which this zone is one example.3. Nature of traffic and parked vehicles in Stockwell Street and Crooms Hill make it more likely that signs will be missed or there will not be time to read and understand the timings.4. Additional warning signs on A206 are damaged, offering reduced or no visibility, therefore they do not provide advanced warning of the restrictions.1. Familiarity with this road as an unrestricted road.I have been driving around Greenwich for over four decades. I grew up in Charlton and visited Greenwich regularly. I fondly recall driving up the now-pedestrianised road through Greenwich Park, and once this was closed to vehicle traffic my famiily and myself swapped to using Crooms Hill. It was therefore part of my “mental map” of the area that Crooms Hill was “the” way to drive between Greenwich and Blackheath, and I had no expectation that this road might have traffic restrictions. I fully accept that this fact in and of itself does not provide an excuse for having missed the signs, but, given that the restrictions were put in place within the last 2-3 months, I would be grateful if you could take this into consideration when considering mitigating circumstances.
2. Known and acknowledged problems with the implementation of these restrictions.There are documented issues with the implementation of the new restrictions. According to the following link…
https://www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk/news/2024/west-and-east-greenwich-traffic-management-scheme-update-were-making-changes-based-your… it is clear that this is a trial scheme and there have already been issues raised regarding confusing signage, leading to an extended grace period up to 2nd January while new signs are put in place and additional ones installed. However, as I will explain in point (4), these additional signs are damged and do not function to alert drivers to the upcoming restrictions.
As additional evidence for this point I offer the following link to an article from the Greenwich Wire:
https://greenwichwire.co.uk/2025/01/31/greenwich-ltn-more-signs-council-learning-lessons/To quote some of this article:
“Greenwich Council’s deputy leader Averil Lekau admitted that the launch of the LTN, which began at the end of November but has only been enforced since January 2, had not been smooth and said the town hall was still “learning lessons”.
“There has been an increase in traffic in some roads in Charlton, while enforcement was delayed because of
problems with the signage, which remains minimal, with little advance warning of the restrictions. “ [My emphasis]
“Some advance warning signs were put up before Christmas but were quickly taken down again. Lekau said that signs were being reviewed to ensure they were clear.”
“Lekau replied: “I believe we’re learning lessons and I believe as we learn those lessons, we will continue to address them.” She did not give a date for when the new signs would be installed.”
3. Signs are easy to miss owing to nature of traffic and parked vehicles in Stockwell Street.The signs on either side of the road are raised up on poles and if one is more focussed on the road ahead, one might have only a short period of time in which to take them in and — crucially — to read and parse the timing restrictions. My memory of this drive was that I had to navigate between both parked and moving cars and coaches as I was driving up Stockwell St towards Crooms Hill. (Please see Image1_StockwellSt.jpeg as an example of the drive up Stockwell St.) As I got up to the location near to the signs, I was in addition looking ahead to judge whether I could drive into Crooms Hill itself. At the point the restictions begin, the road narrows through a pair of planters, and one has to be careful of vehicles coming towards you on ‘your’ side of the road. (Please see Image2_NarrowCroomsHill.jpeg.) All of these circumstances contribute to the signs being effectively less visible than static photographs suggest. (Having reviewed the video evidence, I would note that it does not show what happened just previously, specifically that a car had approached me coming down Crooms Hill and I had to slow down somewhat and judge my speed such that I could let it pass me on Stockwell Street before driving between the planters into Crooms Hill. Again, this focus on oncoming cars mitigates against having time to read, parse and understand the signs).
As you can see from Image3_ExtraWarning.jpeg, this is clearly enough of a problem that someone has taken it into their own hands to print an additional sign on the left-hand planter, warning drivers of the restrictions. This would strongly suggest that the two signs by themselves provide insufficient warning of the restrictions.
4. Additional warning signs on A206 are damaged and do not provide adequate warning in one direction and no warning in the other.Given the three points above, it would seem reasonable to provide additional early warning signs, further away from the point at which restrictions begin. I do not recall seeing these signs during the journey in question.
I therefore drove back to the area in question on 14th March to double-check and was able to establish the following:
- Coming from the SW, as you drive along the A206 before turning right into Stockwell Street, the warning sign is partially damaged and the bottom half is semi-rotated, making it more difficult to see. (Image4_A206TowardsTurningFromWest_SignPartiallyTurned.jpeg)
- Coming from the NE, as you drive along the A206 before turning left into Stockwell Street, the warning sign is completely rotated and not visible. (Image5_A206TowardsTurningFromEast_SignTurnedRound.jpeg and Image6_A206TowardsGreenwich_SignTurnedRound.jpeg)
It is clear that as of 14th March, drivers coming from either direction along the A206 would not be able to see these signs and would therefore have no advance warning of the restrictions. It is reasonable to assume that this was also the case on the date of my journey. I therefore suffered by not receiving a fair warning that the restrictions were in place.
ConclusionTaken overall, I believe that the following points all indicate that I did not receive fair warning of the restrictions:
- The scheme is recent, is a trial scheme, and is still receiving feedback.
- There are known problems with the scheme, with have been acknowledged by Greenwich Council. The scheme is controversial and it has been admitted that The Council “is learning lessons”.
- The scheme suffered from various problems with advanced warning signs.
- The two advance warning signs on the A206 are damanged (as of 14th March), one of them so badly that no driver would receive an advance warning.
These points, along with my expectation that the road was drivable with no restrictions — based on decades of driving up the road while there were no restrictions — meant that I did not receive fair and sufficient warning of the restrictions. I therefore request that this penalty notice be cancelled.
Images:
Image1_StockwellSt.jpeg
Image2_NarrowCroomsHill.jpeg
Image3_ExtraWarning.jpeg
Image4_A206TowardsTurningFromWest_SignPartiallyTurned.jpeg
Image5_A206TowardsTurningFromEast_SignTurnedRound.jpeg
Image6_A206TowardsGreenwich_SignTurnedRound.jpeg
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