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£5m ‘illegal’ diplomatic bay parking fines could be repaid
Pippa Crerar, City Hall Editor1 Feb 2010
Central London councils could be forced to pay back up to £5 million in parking fines after it emerged that hundreds of bays have been operating illegally for decades.
The 346 diplomatic bays reserved for foreign embassy staff across five boroughs needed road signs approved by the Department of Transport. But the councils, including Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster, Camden and Islington, failed to get proper permission.
As a result their signs did not comply with the law which means that every parking fine and car clamping in the unauthorised bays since the Seventies could be unenforceable. Under the Town and Country Planning Act the signs were classed as “illegal obstructions of the highway”.
Nick Herron, of the Motorists' Legal Challenge groups, said: “It is probably the biggest parking admission ever across the country and will have huge implications.”
By law, every motorist given a ticket in the past six years in such cases could be able to reclaim the money. Kevin Goad, of Westminster council, which has 196 bays and issued 1,463 tickets in them last year, said: “No reasonably observant person could have thought that these bays were not solely reserved for diplomats.”
Reader views (2)
This is the tip of the iceberg. Local authorities are remarkably cavalier about parking signs. They adopt a common sense approach for themselves but impose the strict letter of the law for their parkers. Signs are there for a reason, to give parkers a reasonable chance of guessing where and when it is legal to park. If the signs are no good, lots of parkers get penalty notices (good for the Council). On the other hand, if challenged, penalties for parking where the signage is bad are illegal (bad for the Council). Taxpayers don't despair, the Council is still on to a winner because the number of people who challenge bad signage will always be relatively low.
- Bloke, Lambeth, 02/02/2010 10:48
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Ok so the law says that the councils will have to pay the motorists back, but will they ?
- Mr S.Port, London, 02/02/2010 00:54
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