-
Surbiton Crescent
There has been a hugely negative reaction to the new traffic scheme on Surbiton Crescent.
I for one received 5 PCN's for driving through the 'except for access' section my reasoning being that I needed access. I have had 4 withdrawn on appeal and still arguing about the 5th but i will refuse to pay it.
The ambiguous and misleading signage has now led to over 22,000 PCN's between 14th Sept and 1st Jan and still counting.
This represents a council revenue of a little short of £1.5 million. Whether they "ringfence" it or not for honourable causes the fact remains the money was extorted from innocent /confused motorists.
Time for this to stop so I'm trying to get as many people together as possible to take RBK to court.
If anyone's interested please let me know.
Comments
There are people on Streetlife who are active on this. Why not contact them? One of them put up an email address inviting people to get in touch with him.
I think that you will receive a lot of support on this judging from the local reaction, but you need to prepare your case very carefully.
If I were you, I'd concentrate on the signage and not mention the revenue generation. Everyone knows that this is a revenue generation exercise, but that is irrelevant if the council can prove they have implemented the trap legally.
I think you need to concentrate on why the signage was inaccurate - was it size, positioning or something else?
The real weak point of the scheme in my opinion is separating (and not fining) those who genuinely need access. How is that measured? I assume that residents of the road are exempt, but what about their visitors? Are they expected to get a PCN and then appeal it once they can prove they were visiting or is the camera system intelligent enough to recognise when people have been within the zone for a significant amount of time? Even if it is, what about delivery drivers, school parents etc. who genuinely require access but will still only be there for a few minutes?
I'd definitely avoid using the many examples of people who have been fined but just don't understand the Highway Code. A lot of people who commented that they had been fined on the Surrey Comet website seemed to think that they could legally pass the sign to 'access' Maple Road at the other end of the zone! Clearly, this would impede any legal appeal!