Sunday 25 February 2018

Francis Road Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) appeal

I received a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) from Waltham Forest Council for passing through a conditional no entry sign on Francis Road in Leyton (at the Albert Road junction). The sign has been recently put up and I totally missed it. Like me I'm certain others have missed it and are being bullied by the council into paying the fine. The council truly does run an extortion racket. No two ways about it. I will be appealing the PCN and as a starting point I've just sent the following representation:
First of all, I had no intention to pass this conditional no entry sign. It was a Sunday afternoon. The roads were empty. I was on my way to Sainsbury's Local just up the road coming from Leytonstone. There were many roads available to me to get there and no incentive for me to skip this sign. I simply missed it.
Secondly, about the sign itself, the conditional no entry sign is ridiculously easy to miss. It is obscured by the white arrow on blue background "carry on straight" sign right above it. There is no marking on the road on the ground leading up to it indicating to the driver that they should stop. There is no indication leading up to the sign that the layout of the road has changed and that there is no straight through access. This area has plenty of bold red unconditional no entry signs which are super clear to spot but there's no reason to assume that there will be a conditional no entry right in the middle of Francis Road. Given that this sign is a such an anomaly in the area there should be a white and red marking on the base of the pole to make it super clear to oncoming drivers that there is something here worthy of taking note. Add to that the conditional no entry sign should be slightly lower than it is so that it comes naturally and clearly into the view of oncoming drivers. And add to that the sign should be coupled with a camera sign to get the attention of oncoming drivers – especially local drivers – who have no reason to assume that the road which they are used to driving through is now conditionally inaccessible.
Thirdly, it is clear to me that I am not the only person who has missed this sign. I went today to the site to make sense of the contravention I had committed and within 10 seconds of getting there a driver of a small van was on the verge of driving straight through before I jumped at his car waving to save him from a fine. I spoke to him and like me he totally missed the sign for the above-mentioned reason. I have also seen from doing a quick internet search that others have been caught out by this unclear road marking (e.g. http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=118167).
Unless the council has deliberately put up this obscure sign to catch drivers out and generate extra income for itself I believe it has a right to revisit this site and make it much more apparent that this part of Francis Road is no entry area between the said times. It baffles me why this isn't just a simple unconditional no entry area sign but that's a whole separate discussion. I will be making a Freedom Of Information request to get a better understanding of how many drivers have been caught out by this poor signage. Numbers don't lie. If I am just one of a handful of drivers who have made this mistake then I will happily pay the fine. If, on the other hand, the number of drivers caught out by this sign is in the hundreds then I believe the council has a duty to overturn the PCNs issued here and readdress the signage.
The Freedom Of Information request which I sent to Waltham Forest Council can be found here.

Update (22 March 2018): I was driving up Leyton High Road this week and I noticed a new blue information sign on the Francis Road, Jesse Road and Dawlish Road junctions which reads: "NO ACCESS TO GROVE GREEN ROAD VIA FRANCIS ROAD". A little late but this is good to see.

Update (23 March 2018): My Freedom of Information request has been responded to by Waltham Forest's Information Officer and here is a link to the document that contains the results. In summary, the conditional no entry signage was put up in mid-December 2017, PCNs have been issued here since mid-December 2017 and the number of PCNs that have been issued here in each of January and March 2018 is around the 600 mark. That's a lot of PCNs!

Update (05 May 2018): My initial appeal was rejected by Waltham Forest (no surprises there) and I just gave in and paid the £65 rather than continuing with the appeal and taking my case to the independent adjudicator. I am disappointed in myself and I can now only hope others are more bold in their pursuit of standing up to the council's scare tactics and getting better signs put up around Francis Road.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Adil,

I also got caught out by this sign. How did you get on with your appeal?

adil said...

I'm still waiting for them to get back to me. You should totally appeal the fine and put forward your arguments as to why the sign is disguised and incredibly easy to miss. My wife was driving up Francis Road yesterday and the driver in front of her went straight through the sign. It's so easy to miss. My wife horned at the driver in front but it was too late. They had already gone through it.

Unknown said...

Salaam bro,

JazakAllah for this. I got caught out too and currently in the process of appealing. Your post has been very helpful.

The council will make a killing from this.

Saeed.

adil said...

No problem Saeed. Glad to know it was useful for you. I just updated my post to contain a summary of the Freedom of Information request that I made. You can find a link in my post to the full response if you're interested.

Unknown said...

Thanks for the update Adil. Damn thats a lot!

Keep us updated on your appeal.

Unknown said...

Hi Adil,

I just commented on the PIEPOO forum.

Wow circa 1776 PCN issued since the council started handing out
fines at this location. Clearly something is not right.

Unknown said...

Also got caught out by this in March but only just received my notice. Seem like an underhand effort by the council to generate revenue. At no time was I trying to knowingly drive somewhere I shouldn't be - as i'm sure is the case with all the other drivers caught out.

Appreciate you documenting your experience and raising awareness of the issue.

Kim said...

I have recently been issued with a PCN for the same road. Adil's information is very helpful. I too am appealing on the same grounds as Adil as I agree totally with what he has said. I am not familiar with the area and was listening to the Sat Nav direction. Would like to query if Adil was successful with his appeal.

Andrea said...

Hi

I have just also received a PCN for this on 15/10. This is a crazy amount of money to pay for a mistake when lost in an area I do not know on a quiet Saturday morning. This really is concerning how on earth can the amounts be justified.

wendy007 said...

I got a pcn here last week, has anyone had a successful appeal?

Nas Dahegamia said...

I too have just got a PCN unfamiliar with these changes and very confusing looking at the blue and wait go straight ahead. I was giving an elderly neighbour a list to a hospital appointment doing my good deed. She was heard the police station is now flats and wanted to take a look. The sign is very confusing even though the times are there because its too quick to notice as there are no stop signs infact your eye catches the drive through blue and white sign. Crazy and it's there to make money inn my view if I wanted to commit an offence I would have driven through the no entry ahead to get to Morley Road instead of turning left. Unfair totally. Nas