Council could lose more than £3m in road sign blunder

Published on Saturday 15 September 2007 00:24

A SCOTTISH city council may be forced to write off millions of pounds in parking tickets because of a parking-sign blunder, it was revealed yesterday.

The massive claw-back in fines is facing Aberdeen City Council after Scotland's parking watchdog ruled that the authority had acted illegally by placing a sign warning motorists about the presence of a parking zone in the wrong place.

The city council erected notices bearing the words "ticket zone" below no-parking emblems on entrance signs for a controlled parking zone near the city centre. But Peter Royds, the parking adjudicator of the Scottish Parking Appeals Service, has ruled that the signs are unlawful, as the notices can only be legally displayed above the logo.

His ruling has left the door open to thousands of motorists in the city to appeal against fines. About 75,000 motorists a year are fined for illegal parking in Aberdeen and there are fears the authority might be forced to write off some of the 3.5 million owed in parking fines.

But yesterday, as city council officials were studying the ruling, leaders of the authority condemned the judgment as "silly" and "bureaucracy gone mad".

The Scotsman broke the news of the ruling to Kate Dean, the leader of the administration, in Brussels where she was on council business. "I have never heard anything so silly in all my life," she said. "I think this is taking the letter of the law to extremes.

"We have clear signage and I think it is petty, to say the least. However, we will need to look into it to ensure that we stay within the law."

Ms Dean added: "Parking penalties have never been seen a source of income. They are there as a deterrent to ensure that people do obey the parking rules. But, on the other hand, this is money we would have expected to come into our coffers. And we are not only looking at losing the money, we are also looking at having to change all the signage, another expense."

Kevin Stewart, the deputy leader of the council, said: "This is bureaucracy gone mad. The members of the adjudication board need their heads looked at, in my opinion.

"It is the kind of red tape that really gets on people's wick and this kind of silly judgment could cost councils up and down the land a lot of money."

The ruling was made by the appeals service after an Aberdeen motorist challenged a fine imposed last December after he parked on a single yellow line in Margaret Street.

The motorist claimed that the penalty charge notice was in breach of the Road Traffic Act introduced by the Westminster government in 1991.

The motorist argued that the signs at the entrance to the controlled parking zone in nearby Rose Street did not comply with the regulations, known as the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions, which stipulate the prescribed signs to indicate the entrance to a controlled parking zone.

In his ruling, Mr Royds states: "Photographic evidence shows the sign which is in place has the words 'ticket zone' underneath the no-parking roundel.

"That is not a permitted variation of the arrangements which prescribe that the words 'controlled zone' or 'ticket zone' must appear above the roundel. The arrangement on the sign in Rose Street is not only unauthorised but also confusing."

The council has 14 days in which to appeal.

A spokesman for the city council said: "We are considering the implications of the adjudication and it is too early to come to any firm conclusions."

But Neil Greig, director of the Advanced Motoring Institute, said the council should have ensured that the proper signs were in place.

He said: "They know what the regulations are; they are the experts and they should get it right. While it might seem a bit pedantic, these signs have to be strictly correct because we are talking about enforcing traffic orders."

A spokeswoman for the City of Edinburgh Council said: "All of our signs comply with this ruling. The writing is above the emblem on each sign."

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said that while it was "sympathetic to Aberdeen City Council's position in this matter, Glasgow's signs comply with the appropriate legislation".

The Road Traffic Act 1991 brought about a number of key changes in the enforcement of parking regulations in Britain. Parking offences enforced by councils were decriminalised and brought within the civil enforcement system.

THE DIFFERENCE A DATE CAN MAKE

IN FEBRUARY of this year Edinburgh City Council cancelled 6.5 million of unpaid fines after the High Court in London ruled in favour of a driver who challenged a fine because the penalty notice did not include both the date of the offence and the date it was issued.

Unpaid parking fines totalling 300,000 were then written off last month by Glasgow City Council because of a similar legal error.

Aberdeen City Council is still considering what action to take over fines totalling more than 2.1 million after the ruling.

The Scottish councils' decision to write off the fines followed a successful appeal to the Scottish Parking Appeals Service by an Aberdeen motorist, which was based on the ruling in an action against Barnet Council in London.

The ruling stated that, to be valid, parking tickets must display the date the vehicle was seen and the date of issue.

Peter Royds, the Scottish Parking Appeals Service adjudicator, said a failure to display two dates "creates potential uncertainty" as to when the periods for payment of the penalty charge, or a reduced charge for early payment, begin and end.

The Road Traffic Act of 1991 says parking tickets must carry both dates because in London and other parts of the UK, a fine can be posted out later by officials who have used CCTV evidence.

Other Scottish councils, such as Dundee, and Perth and Kinross, say they are not affected by the ruling.