Drivers will have to wait to see if they have been unfairly fined

THOUSANDS of drivers will have to wait to find out if they may have been unfairly fined for parking in unmarked bays in Coventry city centre after a parking watchdog revealed it would not publish the results of its review until after the local elections.

The Traffic Penalty Tribunal has been reviewing Coventry City Council’s Restricted Parking Zone Scheme to make sure it is fair after there were concerns signs warning of the parking restrictions were not sufficient.

Coventry City Council previously rubbished suggestions it could be forced to pay back £1.5million in parking fines to disgruntled drivers, saying the scheme was, and still is, approved by the Department for Transport.

But decisions of the tribunal are subject to judicial review in the High Court.

The Traffic Penalty Tribunal had been due to deliver its verdict by the end of last week (April 27) but chief adjudicator Caroline Sheppard OBE revealed the decision would be delayed until after voting in the local government elections had taken place on May 3.

A spokesman for the TPT said: “In view of the local elections on Thursday, and having regard to the pre-election guidance, adjudicator’s decision in the cases concerning the restricted parking zone in Coventry City Centre will now be issued on Friday 4 May.”

The authority brought the Restricted Parking Zone scheme into force in Coventry in the summer of 2012.

It means that inside the city centre, drivers can only park in a marked designated parking bay.

In some places, yellow lines have been painted over but cars are still not allowed to park there.

There are signs warning people they are parking in a restricted parking zone, but it all comes down to whether these signs are sufficient.

The distance between signs in some areas has seemingly left many people confused.

There were 58,356 fixed penalty notices issued to drivers between October 2012 and August 2017 by Coventry City Council.

The charge for a fixed penalty notice in Coventry for a “serious” parking offence is £70, and £50 for less serious offences.

The penalty charge will be reduced by 50 per cent to either £35 or £25 respectively if the fine is paid within 14 days.

Unfortunately, if you collected one of the 58,356 penalty notices, the review being carried out by the TPT does not automatically mean you get your money back.

Indeed, the TPT doesn’t have the power to take legal action against the council - but its decisions are subject to judicial review in the High Court.

It can also make recommendations on improvements to avoid similar issues in the future.

A spokesperson for Coventry City Council previously said: “The position regarding our Restricted Parking Zone has not changed - it was put together with the Department for Transport and remains fully approved by them.

“In August last year we were contacted by the Adjudicator from the Traffic Penalty Tribunal and co-operated in her review of our scheme. We’ve provided everything they have asked us but we haven’t heard anything back.

“No legal proceedings have been mentioned to us and we have no reason to think that this will end up in court - now or in the future.

“In fact there is no evidence that the Restricted Parking Zone is in any way in breach of any regulations as it remains fully approved by the Department for Transport.”

In December 2016 Stephen Knapp, deputy chief adjudicator for the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, asked Coventry City Council to review unclear signs at Whittle Arch bus gate in Hales Street.

The council refused to pay back more than £1.7million in bus gate fines despite numerous rulings from adjudicators that the signing was unclear.

The bus gate had racked up almost 72,973 penalty charge notices (PCN) since 2014 - with the council collecting a whopping £1,725,342.84.

The council insisted the signs were fully compliant but was willing to look at installing extra signs to give drivers advanced warning of the bus gate.

Elsewhere in the city centre, the council blamed a technical error made by the Department for Transport after 13,282 drivers were entitled to refunds totalling at least £398,460 after driving through bus gates at Park Road, Warwick Row and Gosford Street.

In 2016, the council refused to automatically refund drivers but was issuing refunds to people who made a valid claim.

An investigation was then launched to find out what went wrong and ensure that all bus gate signs in Coventry was legally compliant.