53J PCN for Failing to Comply w/ Restricted Access signage - Signage not clear - Ealing Council

Dariunas

Hi all,

Wondering if anyone could advise me on my situation here please?

So, a back road I used to take to avoid traffic all the time, had, at some point after lockdown I guess, become a restricted-access road unknown to me. I took this road during the restricted hours and completely missed the signage. I never got the first letter for some reason; just the second letter where Ealing Council wanted the full amount.

At the time, I assumed I had been complacent as I'm usually more focussed on traffic and pedestrians etc. However, I reviewed the junction on google maps and the new signs and realised there is no way I would have caught it because the angle of approach is so awkward; my car has legendarily obstructive A-pillars and while I might have seen that a sign is there, wouldn't have seen the actual face of it; by the time I was at an angle to face it; my A-pillar and then car roof would be in the way.

It is, in my opinion a genuinely unfair and ludicrous design to sign positioning that puts any driver on the approach at a huge disadvantage with little to no chance of noticing it. I had written a letter to appeal, but aspects of life gets in the way and struggled to get pictures together in time and they have now filed to 'recover' the charge as a debt through County court. There is a statutory declaration response I could fill in, but seems to only give me 3 options. I'm not sure where to go from here; should I still try to appeal direct to the adjudicator with a view to take it to court if they reject it based on the content of my appeal? (I will as firmly believe it's wrong)

Or Return the statutory declaration with the content of my appeal letter?

Any help appreciated; thank you all!

Umkomaas

As we major on private parking tickets here, PePiPoo will be your best bet for council tickets. Register there but please note that a Hotmail address won't work - try using a throwaway Gmail account instead if you do have trouble registering, and post a new thread; here's your link:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?act=SF&s=&f=30

Have a read through some of the other threads there before you post your own, to get the hang of what information they need from you in your opening post - but as a minimum you will need to post redacted photos/scans of all correspondence you've received from the council (both sides, if appropriate), as they need to see all the small print.

Dariunas

I completely forgot to post my content

I've shown historical images with positioning of the previous width restriction signage position... compared to the new one.

My response


Previous signage setup




This is the angle I would drive in on...




And then the new signage




I will need to try and take some on-site that demonstrate just how bad the positioning is...

Dariunas

Thank you Umkomaas, I will post there now...