|DOUBLE YELLOW LINES
CAUTION!
This doesn’t work in cities which have taken over the parking enforcement. The hero/fool? Neil Herron fought them further than I would, and uncovered a scandalous rip-off which has yet to be overturned, as far as I know. City-controlled parking enforcement doesn’t follow the law. They have an “independent” tribunal which is funded by a levy on all successful FPNs. Independent? Hah! You may succeed with very bad lines, but you’ll have to kiss their ass, not demand justice.
LEGAL
Everyone “knows” that DYLs are not enforceable if they have gaps. But it takes at least two days of court appearances, (turn up at ten am, and wait your turn), to challenge it, so those people with more sense than I have, just pay the fixed penalty notice, ( FPN).
The lines outside my house are there to keep the turn-round clear, but they are much longer than necessary. It’s a terraced street, parking spaces are in short supply. I don’t like to park in front of someone else’s house if I can avoid it, so I always take the hot spot.
I found this key legal precedent on “pepipoo” , to whom I am indebted.
It’s an appeal, about double white lines. But it applies to all road markings.
“I have come to the conclusion, though with some reluctance, that the justices were wrong. The legislation in question makes it abundantly clear that there must be strict conformity with the traffic signs which are prescribed”…
”Much as one sympathises with the approach of the justices, it is impossible to say that an offence was committed.”…
”I see no escape from saying that here no offence was committed, and accordingly I would allow the appeal and quash the conviction.”
MY STORY
I won the first batch because of big gaps in the lines. Easy-peasy, as long as the magistrate wakes up and listens.
The council repainted them, but it was a blobby mess. “The Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2002” specifies that DYLs must be as in the diagram, (continuous), and (100mm-100mmspace-100mm), or (75-75-75), or (50-50-50). It also specifies the dimension tolerances as plus 30 percent or minus 10 percent. Like the broken gaps, one failure anywhere invalidates the complete stretch. So I won the next batch of tickets.
The council repainted them again. Better, but not good enough. I measured, and found the widths of the new lines and spaces out of tolerance. I continued to park there. It became a standard wind-up for new C3POs, (PCSOs) to be sent down my street, to stick a quick ticket on my van, and leg it sharpish before I caught them. Some succeeded, but some just got seen off, with tail between legs. Anyway, I made a formal complaint, and all the tickets were cancelled…
And the council repainted the lines for a third time! (The fourth incarnation.) This time they didn’t just throw paint blindly from a distance, they used pre-cut plastic tape bedded in a thin skim of tarmac.These l assume are actually temporary lines and not designed to be permanent. It was spot on, and when the Police Inspector rang me to see if they were now correct, I confirmed that they were. I added that they wouldn’t last very long, though.
Soon, bits were missing, and now I’m back to parking there again. Got six new tickets, all challenged. Two were quickly cancelled by Central Ticket Office, (CTO), and one was discontinued by the prosecution. Three remain alive.
The prosecution are obviously now playing cat-and mouse to teach me a lesson. Today was my fourth court appearance for these three, and they adjourned it yet again.
I made a fuss. Boy, did I make a fuss.
They then conferred at length, and then made it rather clear to me, (without actually quite saying so), that these charges will probably all be dropped and the council told to repaint the lines, and I won’t need to re-attend court. I’m confident that this will happen.
The lines will eventually be repainted. Again. They’ll be correct, I expect.
I shall park there again, and get lots more tickets.
THEN, and only then, I shall bring up a legal point that l've held in reserve! For obvious reasons l'll refrain from saying what it is at the moment. I shall win again. Haha-bloody-ha!
Kudos to Neil Herron who fought longer and harder than we have. (This is SH’s project too, he does a lot of the work and planning, but I’m the one who enjoys the court battles.) Neil Herron is continuing fighting and his blog is well worth a read. Many links and articles on parking issues.
I’m knackered now; hopefully someone will follow up some of this, and fill in more up-to-date info on the other FPN warriors I’ve mentioned.
PS, To round off a good day, I’ve just bought some of these subs very cheap, second-hand. (Groan, he’s off again!)
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