PCN - 1 Minute After Bus Lane Enforcement Starts

he4therlouise

Hi

Between 7.30am-6:30pm the centre of Oxford is only open to buses and bicycles. I drive through the centre of Oxford regularly just before 7.30am.

I have just received a PCN with a photograph of my car, stating I am in a bus lane. The time on the photograph is 7:31am.

I would have entered the restricted area before 7.30am, but just failed to exit the area before this time. The photograph shows me right at the end of the restricted area, having already driven through most of it.

Do I have a leg to stand on to appeal? It seems very unfair, as the area is often very busy and I often let buses go ahead of me, which would hold me back.

Your advice would be very much appreciated!

Thank you.

peter_the_piper

I suggest, if not already done, that go to pepipoo.com for extra help. I feel sure that a Patas adjudicator would allow this appeal due to a possible difference in timing, De Minimus. There are things you need to get hold of, the traffic order setting up the bus lane, proof that the timing on the cctv was correct etc.

Tilt

Silly question I know, but why drive through a restriction regularly when you know it's just about to come into force?

Coupon-mad

he4therlouise wrote: »

Hi

Between 7.30am-6:30pm the centre of Oxford is only open to buses and bicycles. I drive through the centre of Oxford regularly just before 7.30am.

I have just received a PCN with a photograph of my car, stating I am in a bus lane. The time on the photograph is 7:31am.

I would have entered the restricted area before 7.30am, but just failed to exit the area before this time. The photograph shows me right at the end of the restricted area, having already driven through most of it.

Do I have a leg to stand on to appeal? It seems very unfair, as the area is often very busy and I often let buses go ahead of me, which would hold me back.

Your advice would be very much appreciated!

Thank you.

You certainly do have a leg to stand on, so go to pepipoo.

I have seen similar cases won in there - I seem to recall that the manufacturers' guidelines for some of these cameras actually state there could be a 5% or more error rate with things like the exact time...so IMHO a Council should NOT enforce a PCN just one minute after a restriction starts.

Take them to adjudication, raise the error possibility of the clock being not exactly correct as per the camera manufacturers' information (if you can't find it online then put the Council to proof over the manufacturers' info). To enforce after just ONE minute is 'de minimis' (a mere trifle) and clearly not the intention of bus lane enforcement and against normal PCN guidelines when restricitons are about to start or finish. On-street, for parking issues (a bit different but...) CEOs normally should not enforce if a restriction is about to end, up to 3 minutes time or if it has just started - so to start issuing bus lane tickets after 60 seconds or so is probably inconsistent with the Council's approach to PCNs generally. In short it's a daft ticket to issue and the Council should be ashamed. Add in anything else pepipoo give you when they see your ticket and correspondence.

Do not be tempted to pay at the discount - if you appeal that becomes irrelevant and if you pay you can't appeal.

ILW

How many minutes leeway should be allowed?

Coupon-mad

Surely, an adjustment to take account of the amount as defined in the manufacturers' information about the potential error rate of the clock. As I said in my post I have seen cases like this won before.

If you want an answer I would suggest 2 or 3 minutes as being fair in case of the clock only being, say, 95% accurate. As I said, up to 3 minutes is what CEOs are normally told to allow at the start or end of a restriction on-street so why would this not be similar.