Are police no waiting cones legal?

paddedjohn

Near me there is a new build school just opened, the school is at the end of a once quietish road that is unmarked by any yellow lines whatsoever but since the school opened the traffic has been very busy due to parents wanting to get as close to the school as possible so the police heve been in attendance guiding traffic and have placed no waiting cones either side of the road about 40-50feet from the school gates but outside people's houses. They have issued tickets to at least 6 cars that have been parked here and one is to a friend of mine.My question is, are these cones legally enforcable or are the police acting outside their powers.

HappyMJ

paddedjohn wrote: »

Near me there is a new build school just opened, the school is at the end of a once quietish road that is unmarked by any yellow lines whatsoever but since the school opened the traffic has been very busy due to parents wanting to get as close to the school as possible so the police heve been in attendance guiding traffic and have placed no waiting cones either side of the road about 40-50feet from the school gates but outside people's houses. They have issued tickets to at least 6 cars that have been parked here and one is to a friend of mine.My question is, are these cones legally enforcable or are the police acting outside their powers.

The police issue penalty notices for parking offences. You can appeal a penalty notice if you want to.

paddedjohn

I know he can appeal and he will be but I can't see how there is an offence committed since he has parked in the same place foe years with no probs but now some coppers have deemed it wrong, there are no restrictions anywhere apart from these cones. Do the police need an official order to place them or can they put them where they want and do they carry any weight?

prowla

From the highway code:

105. You MUST obey signals given by police
officers, traffic officers, traffic wardens
and signs used by school crossing
patrols.

peter_the_piper

I would suspect that any appeal would be through a magistrates court if the FPN is not paid. I can see no reason why the police cannot put down cones and I would expect them to have the same weight as a copper standing there. I assume they are to prevent an obstruction.

cardinalbiggles

You would need to be a complete fool to a)park where there are police cones and b)even try to argue that what you did was justified.

Don't park where there are police cones, end of.

HappyMJ

paddedjohn wrote: »

I know he can appeal and he will be but I can't see how there is an offence committed since he has parked in the same place foe years with no probs but now some coppers have deemed it wrong, there are no restrictions anywhere apart from these cones. Do the police need an official order to place them or can they put them where they want and do they carry any weight?

You will need to ask them why they were placed there. They will have a valid reason they don't just put them down and put tickets on everyone's cars for fun.

AlexisV

Highway code isn't law.

There are no Traffic Regulation Orders when it comes to police putting down cones, so council PCN's would be void.

You'd have to persuade a magistrate when it came to a police FPN though, and I wouldn't fancy your chances.

spiro

I suspect that within a few weeks there will be yellow lines there as they appear to be either side of the entrances to most schools I ever drive past these days.

cajef

AlexisV wrote: »

Highway code isn't law.

From the Highway Code.

Many of the rules in the Code are legal requirements, and if you disobey these rules you are committing a criminal offence. You may be fined, given penalty points on your licence or be disqualified from driving. In the most serious cases you may be sent to prison. Such rules are identified by the use of the words ‘MUST/MUST NOT’.

The rule that prowla quoted has MUST in it so is a legal requirement, though whether this applies to police cones is debatable.

Gloomendoom

They could still give you a ticket for obstructing the highway even if they hadn't put any cones out (ask me how I know ) The cones were there to warn you not to park/stop.

As somebody has already said, ignoring them is daft.