Sign 'errors' could see parking fines refunded

27 June 2007

PARKING wardens should be banned from every controlled parking zone (CPZ) in Haringey - because of doubt over whether any of the signage is legally enforceable.

That is the call from leading parking and traffic campaigner Simon Aldridge, a director of London Motorists' Action Group and a Crouch End resident.

In a move that will enrage anyone who has recently paid a CPZ parking fine, Haringey Council has said it's "seeking clarification" from the Department for Transport on the legality of the signs, after a Wood Green woman successfully overturned her parking ticket on appeal to the Parking And Traffic Appeals Service (PATAS).

The verdict means the council, which last year made more than £3.7million in fines given out by parking attendants, could be forced to refund fines and replace every one of the hundreds of CPZ signs across the borough, costing the taxpayer tens of thousands of pounds. The PATAS judgement said the sign, in The Park, Highgate, did "not comply either in wording or in form with any sign in the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2002 and is therefore unlawful".

Mr Aldridge, of Christchurch Road, said: "They should suspend enforcement immediately if there is a question over the legality of the signage.

"If they are querying it with the Department for Transport it would very much sound as if they are no good.

"Everybody should appeal within 14 days of the issuing of the ticket, because you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

In the last financial year Haringey earned £3,723,940 in parking attendant fines in CPZs and other areas, on top of fines from CCTV cameras.

A spokesman for Haringey Council said: "We are seeking clarification of this ruling. CPZ enforcement is continuing.