WALTHAMSTOW: Council sign error leads to parking refund (From This Is Local London)

WALTHAMSTOW: Council sign error leads to parking refund

1:56pm Wednesday 18th March 2009 in News By Carl Brown

HUNDREDS of parking fines may be refunded because a sign telling people not to park without a ticket does not meet proper guidelines.

Martin Duncan-Jones, of James Lane, Leyton, was issued with a £60 fine after he parked his van in a council parking space last July, without having bought a pay and display ticket before the “grace” period of five minutes had elapsed.

Mr Duncan-Jones, who went to a cash machine so he could buy the ticket, felt he was within the time limit, but the council thought otherwise and turned down his appeal.

He then appealed to the Parking and Traffic Appeals Service (PTAS), which agreed that he had taken too long to buy his ticket.

But PTAS upheld his appeal anyway- because the sign was nothing like the regulations say it should be.

The PTAS ruling said: “The signs shown in the attendant’s photographs, though no doubt erected by the council through the best of motives, bear no resemblance to any sign prescribed by the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2002, and there is no evidence of any signs that are compliant.

“The council cannot erect any signs it pleases and as a result the designated parking place relied on as the basis of the contravention is incorrectly signed and the penalty notice not enforceable.”

Mr Duncan-Jones will therefore keep his £60.

He said: “It is a technicality – the sign was very clear to everyone.

“But the council is so quick to jump on people when they make a slight error.

“It was very sloppy that they did not bother to use a correct sign.”

The council is now facing the possibility that others may appeal against fines issued for parking in bays with similar signs.

The case comes a year after the authority had to refund thousands of pounds worth of traffic fines after it emerged that a box junction in Burghley Road, Leytonstone, did not comply with regulations.

A spokesman for Waltham Forest Council said: “It has been brought to our attention that these signs are no longer suitable and the council’s traffic team are currently reviewing parking provisions in the Walthamstow High Street area as a result. We are hoping to rectify this situation shor tly.”