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Interesting sign. I can't find it in TSRGD 2016. That doesn't mean that the sign isn't lawful. The council could have obtained special permission for it from DfT. I searched https://dft.gov.uk/traffic-auths/?search=West+Sussex and looked through the 18 hits: nothing about signs for motor caravans. It's still possible that DfT have authorised it but it hasn't got onto their database yet. My suspicion, however, would be that they haven't and the council are pulling a fast one.

The general policy adopted with traffic signs is that "motorised caravans" are a subspecies of caravan and that signs show a towed caravan. That makes sense to me: otherwise I look forward to caravan owners parking their cars with attached caravan beneath the "Motor caravans" sign.

Councils' usual practice is to ban parking overnight. The problem is enforcement. The council has to prove that the vehicle was parked during the prohibited hours. If it's a car park with well-defined entrances and exits, they can use cameras and ANPR; on an ordinary road they've got to have someone going along during the prohibited hours. I expect they're scheduling someone to go along between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. That's a time when they probably don't want to be banning parking.

I found this article about a TRO which the council made to ban motor caravans. It reported that 14 signs had been removed "unlawfully". It looks to me as though the signs had been placed unlawfully and that whoever removed them was taking the law into his own hands.

To sum up, the council are in a bind. They can pass a TRO to ban motor caravans overnight, but there are no official signs for this. The only way to implement the TRO lawfully is to obtain permission from DfT for special signs and then place them. They may find that DfT won't agree to the signs or suggest that the council should ban overnight parking instead. Either way, it's not as easy as the council thinks.

There’s often an excessive amount of vans parked along Mill Road, sadly the occasional stench and more obvious, trails from grey and black waste often being dumped from open drain taps as they drive away can make a road pretty vile to walk alongside especially in the summer

When we last visited we preferred to pay the modest cost to stay in the Mill Road Car Park, far nicer and safer than sleeping with cars passing inches from our heads.

In certain locations around the country it has got so out of hand it’s not surprising councils are trying to stem it.

Long rows of often tatty vans aren’t a pretty sight and for some, simple common sense of driving elsewhere when a location is obviously rammed clearly does not compute!

@Bustagate
Thanks for the link above, quite interesting do you know if there is a similar one where TROs can be looked up?

IIRC a few years ago in Scotland hundreds of “no overnight parking” signs were put up and many were challenged and later removed or were unenforceable because of the wording


Many in the motor caravan community seem to think if a sign doesn’t have a related bylaw or TRO on it that it isn’t official and it’s very common practice amongst certain elements of that community to decide they have the right to remove and disobey them. This practice is regularly encouraged on anti social media platforms such as Facebook

Maybe the catalyst for this behaviour stemmed from what had happened in Scotland.

@Ducato It's up to local authorities as to whether they make their TROs available on their website. Some do. Most don't. If you get a ticket, they don't tell you at that stage what the TRO is, but they do put it in their evidence if it goes to appeal before an adjudicator. If you get a ticket, try phoning or emailing the council to ask for the TRO. You can also put in a Freedom of Information request for it, which they are obliged to answer (but not before you have to make representations against a PCN).. . .

A lot of TROs may be found here
https://www.trafficpenaltytribunal.gov.uk/tro-library/

I've looked some more into what sort of parking restrictions councils can impose on specific classes of vehicle. The answer is that they can restrict HGVs and buses separately or together using controlled parking zones. The signs are here. If you scroll down a little, you'll find signs which include a black lorry with "5 t" in white on it. As the text explains:

In some areas, local authorities operate special goods vehicle waiting restrictions. Usually these apply to goods vehicles of over 5 or 7.5 tonnes maximum gross weight. Where the same restrictions apply throughout a zone, usually overnight, the times are indicated on a zone entry sign. Within the zone there are no yellow lines (unless there are other waiting restrictions applying to all vehicles), but there should be repeater signs on each side of every street as a reminder. There are equivalent signs for buses with the bus symbol, and signs that apply to both goods vehicles and buses.

As there are no yellow lines associated with these restrictions, there have to be upright repeater signs on plates to alert drivers to the restrictions. There also have to be signs at the end of the zone to indicate that it's ended.

West Sussex appear to be attempting to create their own equivalent for motor caravans, but without the entry and exit signs for the zone. As it's a completely new type of controlled parking zone not covered by TSRGD, they'd need special authorisation from DfT. DfT would likely insist that it included a symbol which represented motor caravans; this would be a first for British traffic signs.

It appears that West Sussex are part of a trend. I found reports about bans in the following areas:

• North Yorkshire
• Lytham St Annes
• Felixstowe

As this is a long post, I'll set out the conclusions for motor caravanners here: unless the local authority has changed since 2012 (e.g. Northamptonshire has split and Surrey is about to), these signs are valid.

On 5th March 2012, DfT issued special authorisations to 152 local authorities for a package of signs "Traffic signs policy review area-wide authorisation third edition". This package included a yellow plate sign specifying times of parking restrictions for motor caravans.

The special authorisations have no end date and apply throughout the specified authority. As a result, the authority can install the yellow "Motor caravan parking" signs wherever they like within the authority's area.  The signs which they place are lawful and the local authority can enforce PCNs for contravening them.

The rest of this post explains how I discovered this.

North Yorkshire

In North Yorkshire it turns out that there was a ban in three areas from 2012 to 2015. This was allowed to lapse and has now been reimposed. I found this in a document which Google turned up: 2024 report to North Yorkshire Council. Appendix A to this is a copy of a report from 2015 seeking to make permanent the earlier Temporary TRO.

I set out below the section of the 2015 report which shows that the need for authorised traffic signs was recognised, and that the local MP solved the problem by contacting DfT. I have emboldened the most relevant text, but have left the rest as it shows the context.

2.5 Prior to April 2011 Scarborough Borough Council held responsibility for the publicly maintainable highway in the Scarborough Town area, as agents to the County Council, and attempted in a committee report in 2009 to ameliorate issues with motor-caravans in various “honeypot” locations in the town.
2.6 The report contained various measures for on-street parking and also measures involving the restriction of motor-caravans from its off-street car parking facilities (which the borough council remains responsible for) and was presented to its committee on 15 May 2009. The recommendations of the report were agreed and implemented by the Borough Council. 
2.7 Part of the result of the 2009 committee report was the erectiօn of “no overnight camping” signs at various affected on-street locations in Scarborough Town.
2.8 The Borough Council 2009 report identified that there was no legislation or signage available, that allowed any enforceable restriction on a specific category of vehicle at a location, unless Department for Transport approval was sought and granted. Although it was intended, there is no record of this approval being sought or granted. Consequently the “no overnight camping” signs were unenforceable. Furthermore these signs are now superseded by a more appropriate new traffic sign which was authorised by the Department for Transport on 5 March 2012, described below.
2.9 Other examples of historic unenforceable signage, concerning the prohibition of camping, have also been identified in the last couple of years, at locations which have always been under immediate County Council jurisdiction in the wider borough.
2.10 During 2014 all unenforceable signage that had been identified was removed from all locations across the borough by North Yorkshire County Council, following complaints by individuals from the motor-caravanning community. Nevertheless the existence of such signage demonstrates the long-standing problems surrounding the practice and several recent complaints have been received from residents since the signs have been removed. 
2.11 In 2012 the constituency MP Robert Goodwill raised the problems associated with the overnight on-street parking of motor-caravans, on behalf of residents, with the Department for Transport. A letter was received by him, in reply, from MP Norman Baker, the minister responsible for the issue at that time. 
2.12 A copy of the letter was subsequently shared with North Yorkshire County Council for information. The letter informed that on 5 March 2012 the Department for Transport had issued an authorisation of traffic signs and special directions (GT50/113/0008) in respect of appropriate sites on roads for which the Council is the traffic authority, accompanied by a set of drawings (GT50/113/0008-1) of signs, one of which (authorised sign R) specifically shows a prohibition on the waiting of motor caravans during specified hours. 
2.13 The definition of motor-caravans used is the EU definition as follows:
A “Motor Caravan” is a vehicle of Category M: (Motor vehicles with at least four wheels designed and constructed for the carriage of passengers.) with living accommodation space which contains the following equipment as a minimum: 
(a)  seats and table; 
(b)  sleeping accommodation which may be converted from the seats;
(c)  cooking facilities; 
(d)  storage facilities
The definition is contained within European Directive 2007/46/EC. 
2.14 Following the approval of the signage, on 28 June 2012, the County Council applied a temporary order to prohibit overnight parking of motor-caravans between 11pm and 7am, utilising the above-described prescribed signage, and EU definition, to the affected streets, listed in paragraph 2.4. except The Parade Sandsend, which was not included in the temporary orders.

I searched DfT Traffic Authorisations for "North Yorkshire" but couldn't find anything which looked likely. A Google search for "department transport authorisation GT50/113/0008" found it: it was listed under Traffic signs policy review area-wide authorisation third edition. It's authorised sign R on page 7.

Technicalities: Yellow Lines/Parking Bays or CPZ?

Among the conditions imposed was this:

The provisions of Regulations 12, 18 and 19 of the 2002 Regulations shall apply to the Authorised Sign R in the same manner as they apply to the sign shown in diagram 640.2A in Schedule 2 to those regulations

That indicates that the sign was regarded as based on diagram 640.2A. This was the yellow plate sign "Waiting by goods vehicles over maximum gross weight shown prohibited during the periods and in the direction indicated". That sign was used, without accompanying single yellow lines, in a Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) applying to goods vehicles over maximum gross weight shown. The entry sign to such a CPZ was diagram 665 and the exit sign 666 (all in TSRGD 2002 Schedule 2).

The yellow plate sign 640.2 and the entry sign to the CPZ diagram 665 have been superseded by the "build it yourself" system in TSRGD 2016 Schedule 4. Diagram 666 remains as TSRGD 2016 Schedule 7 Part 2 Item 2.

I found Google Street View imagery from 2014 for Royal Albert Drive, Scarborough. There are parking bays and a white plate advising of parking restrictions. That being so, it made sense to regard the yellow plate for motor caravan restrictions as being essentially the same as an ordinary yellow plate which accompanies single yellow lines.

Other Local Authorities

I checked DfT Traffic Authorisations for the other counties listed and found authorisations for the same package "Traffic signs policy review area-wide authorisation third edition" as for North Yorkshire. I could not find anything for Lancashire.

That's because the Traffic Authorisations search is a bit flaky: the first thing you learn is that it's case-sensitive, but that's not all. The failure to get a hit doesn't mean there isn't something.

Having found special authorisations for the same package for 3 of the 4 local authorities, I searched for "third edition" and got 152 hits, which looked like all local authorities in England at the time. These included Lancashire, so I tried searching again for that, and found the special authorisation.

A comment about West Sussex: on Mill Road, Arundel, there are no yellow lines or parking bays. I think it's distinctly dodgy to be putting up those yellow plates without either a single yellow line (which is omitted if parking bays are marked) or entry and exit signs for a motor caravan CPZ. The latter would require special authorisation.

Comment for the Traffic Signs Community

I'm disturbed that DfT rolled out what should have been a statutory instrument amending TSRGD 2002 as 152 special authorisations and that it then didn't take advantage of a new edition of TSRGD to incorporate the changes into a statutory instrument. Talk about brushing things under the carpet ... and keeping them there.