Is it worth disputing this 'prohibition on certain types of vehicle' penalty?

smulx

I travel to London every so often and I always stay at a Travelodge located next to a service station. There's a road that leads from a housing estate to the service station and there has always been signs to say the road is not to be used to access the M4 motorway, but I don't recall any other restriction ever being listed. I've just received a fine though as they changed the access restrictions 4 days before I arrived. I had no idea why I'd received the fine, but I found this that explains the changes -

https://www.hounslow.gov.uk/news/article/558/statement_on_phoenix_way_enforcement

I know it's easy to get out of fines issued by private organisations, but this was issued by the council. Anyone know if I have any grounds to dispute it? I'm sure the signs are actually there so technically I was in the wrong, but it just seems like such a ridiculous moneymaking scam. They'll be making a fortune as there were so many cars using the road. This is the alternative -



and they're claiming to be trying to reduce pollution in London. So people have to take a 12 mile detour to avoid a £130 fine for using a perfectly functional road. I'm assuming I'm just going to have to pay it, but just thought I'd check to see if anyone has any suggestions that might allow me to get out of it. The rule I broke was "52J: Failing to comply with a prohibition on certain types of vehicle."

The article I posted states that the road has always been restricted, but this is the picture from Street View-



I don't know what the little red sign says, but it's certainly not obvious that the road isn't for public use from what I can see. The picture in the article posted above regarding the new restriction just shows a sign that seems to say camera enforcement is in place.

Coupon-mad

I know it's easy to get out of fines issued by private organisations, but this was issued by the council.

This forum mainly deals with private parking tickets, as there are so few of us here who know about Council ones.

pepipoo is the expert forum for beating Council ones - loads of knowledge there
- so do NOT be too hasty and pay it (most can be beaten, over 90% win on pepipoo):

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=30

That sign will NOT be the sign there now, that isn't a proper Council sign (talks about being 'prosecuted' and Hounslow can't prosecute, they issue decriminalised PCNs).

Personally as the restriction & signs had just changed I suspect you can win this with pepipoo's help. Get current photos of the NEW sign, hopefully the tree is obscuring it.

Oh, and don't use a hotmail email addy for pepipoo, or you can't post.

smulx

Thanks, I'll give them a try.