'UNENFORCEABLE'
That’s what tribunal ruled over parking zone in Cov city centre
THOUSANDS of drivers have been unfairly fined for parking in Coventry city centre after a tribunal ruled a parking zone was “unenforceable”.
The Traffic Penalty Tribunal had been reviewing Coventry City Council’s Restricted Parking Zone Scheme (RPZ) to make sure it is fair after complaints it was confusing and there weren’t enough signs.
In essence the whole of the city centre is a restricted parking area, but yesterday Chief Adjudicator Caroline Sheppard OBE ruled the RPZ was “unenforceable” and that signs were “confusing”.
Her decision, made after she was called to look into six cases where fines had been issued in the city, could spark a massive bill for Coventry City Council. All of those six cases were upheld.
There were 58,536 fines dished out within the RPZ in the city centre between October 2012 and August 2017 around 30 per day.
If all of those drivers wrongly fined decide to appeal to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, and have their appeal upheld, the council could be looking at forking out millions of pounds to make things right.
If all of the drivers had paid the lower fine of £35 for paying within 14 days, that equates to £2,048,760 of money wrongly claimed by the council.
If they had paid the higher rate of £70, the council’s bill could be upwards of four million (£4,097,520).
In her conclusions, Ms Sheppard OBE said: “With PCNs [penalty charge notices] issued with that consistency and persistency, year on year, it must have dawned on CCC that the RPZ scheme was far from ‘self-enforcing,’ and that motorists regularly fail to understand where parking is restricted.
“I conclude that such is CCC’s enthusiasm for the concept of a city centre zone bounded by Ringway that they are blind to the fact that motorists unfamiliar with Coventry are confused and effectively misled into thinking that the street where they parked is unrestricted. CCC have lost sight of the Guidance at paragraph 1.1 of Chapter 3 of the Traffic Signs Manual advising that ‘Traffic authorities should always remember that the purpose of regulatory signs is to ensure that drivers clearly understand what restrictions or prohibitions are in force.’
“Inevitably there are experimental schemes, where a motorist encountering something different may not recognise what the traffic authority intended. Many authorities recognising this decide not to penalise ‘first-time users,’ but use the opportunity to explain the unfamiliar scheme so that it will be understood in future.
“In Coventry, however, the number of PCNs issued since 2012 should be evidence enough that the over-large RPZ is not readily understood by motorists.
“Yet CCC, seemingly with a determination and delusion reminiscent of King Canute himself, has continued to enforce PCNs.
“The disgruntlement on the part of some of today’s Coventry citizens about the imposition of parking penalties in the city centre echoes that felt by their medieval forbears about the tolls imposed by Earl Leofric, causing his wife, Lady Godiva, to undertake so memorable a protest to draw attention to their plight.”
Colin Knight, Director of Transportation and Highways for Coventry City Council, said: “Our Restricted Parking Zone (RPZ) remains fully approved by the Department for Transport (DfT) and our scheme continues to be enforceable.
“Our signs were designed in partnership with the DfT and the whole point of implementing this zone back in 2012 was to make parking in the city centre consistent and easier to understand. In fact, following introduction of the RPZ the number of parking tickets issued fell and it has achieved our aim of making the city centre more attractive and has contributed to boosting economic confidence .
“We are extremely disappointed with the Adjudicator’s comments and we are instructing a barrister to see what grounds we have to challenge her findings.”