A MOTORIST has won an appeal against a fine for driving along York’s Coppergate – and hopes other penalised drivers will now be reimbursed.

An independent body, the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, granted Charles Malarkey’s appeal against a penalty charge notice after he argued that signs warning of bus lane restrictions were inadequate.

The council insists the signs are adequate and may appeal the decision.

Mr Malarley claimed the signs were not visible before he was committed to turning into Coppergate from Piccadilly, leaving him with no alternative but to reverse back into Piccadilly or turn around.

The tribunal’s adjudicator said City of York Council had not provided any copy of CCTV film because a licence for a video converter held by its processing centre had expired. He had been provided with two stills but these did not show the contravention in context, he said.

“While I understand that the council has only begun to use camera enforcement for its bus lanes, the fact is that it is required to produce satisfactory CCTV evidence and if it cannot do so, I would suggest that it either should not contest the appeals or should not enforce the restriction until all the systems are up and running.”

He said the signs were located on the corner of the road so he could understand Mr Malarkey’s point that the information, particularly on an ‘exception plate’, was not easily visible, especially for drivers turning left, until the driver was committed to the turn.

“It may be clearer if the signs were set some distance along the road, so that vehicles would at last have an opportunity of approaching them head-on without the distraction of the turn and the pedestrian crossing point immediately behind it.”

He also commented on the road marking which says “restricted access”.

He said: “These words do not convey the bus gate/bus street restriction.”

Mr Malarkey said he was pleased by the tribunal’s decision. He said: “I don’t think the signs were adequate. I’ve been driving for 30 years and have a clean licence, and I would not have driven down there if they had been. I think other motorists being fined for making the same turn should be reimbursed.”

The Institute of Advanced Motorists also welcomed the tribunal’s findings, saying they served as a timely reminder that councils must get it right first time and every time.

A spokesman said: “Although these are often just technical breaches, they undermine confidence in the system.

“When fines are being collected, it is only fair that councils make signposting absolutely clear to avoid any inadvertent contravention of the rules. Allowing licenses to expire is just incompetence.”


Council insists signs are adequate

CITY of York Council insisted signs warning of the Coppergate restrictions were adequate – and revealed it was looking to see whether it could appeal against the tribunal’s decision.

Darren Richardson, director of city and environmental services, said: “All signage on and leading to Coppergate are designed to the appropriate legal standards. Advanced direction signs on Piccadilly are visible in plenty of time for motorists to avoid the Coppergate restriction.

“The issue isn’t whether the signage is adequate – it is. The issue is about the extent of the evidence supplied to the adjudicator which led to their decision and the council will be looking to see if it can appeal this.”

A spokeswoman added that the licence issue only applied to the mechanism for producing evidence to the tribunal for appeals and not to the actual operation of the Bus Lane enforcement system or the issuing of PCNs. “This is why this problem did not come to light until the first evidence pack for the tribunal was produced.”