i54 Innovation Drive bus lane appeal. I won at Tribunal |
i54 Innovation Drive bus lane appeal. I won at Tribunal |
Mon, 13 Aug 2018 - 15:31
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New Member Group: Closed Posts: 2 Joined: 13 Aug 2018 Member No.: 99,381 |
I'm posting under a new name, so that this cannot be correlated against my login elsewhere.
I was way off familiar territory on Innovation Drive, off the M54. There is a bus gate, which is very poorly signed: so badly signed that for the only time in my driving career I was caught by camera. I appealed against the penalty charge notice and received a boilerplate rejection which offered an extension to the reduced payment period. I rejected the kind offer and, eventually, ended up with the Traffic Penalty Tribunal. The Tribunal took over 2 months to produce a decision. My appeal was allowed on the grounds that the Council had not proven its case in this instance. That is very carefully worded, and means that others cannot refer to the decision to support their own case. It also meant that the adjudicator did not need to take into account other issues, such as a council witness statement which, in one important detail, was contradicted by the council's own log of action. On two occasions letters sent to me stated that documents were attached, when they were not. The council evidence pack was a barrage of documents, some of which were entirely irrelevant. The packs also made allegations about my motivation in going through the bus lane which were wild fabrications; certainly not 'evidence' The council included a streetview image of the junction, stating that it was the view on approach. This had been cropped to remove the copyright, and to disguise the fact that it was taken from a google car LEAVING, not approaching, the junction, which materially altered the view. In the process I learned a number of things, which will come in useful if there's a next time. Among them, that an authorisation for signs is not DFT endorsement of the signs. But I trust that, having made an honest mistake on this one occasion, and been exonerated by the Tribunal, there will not be a next time. I'm a long time lurker, and grateful for some of the advice I found here. |
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