Council breaking its own rules over double yellows in Coventry city centre while fining motorists...

Council breaking its own rules over double yellows in Coventry city centre while fining motorists, says campaigner



MOTORISTS unwittingly seeking to park unlawfully in Coventry city centre’s restricted parking zone are being confused, snared and unfairly fined because of double yellow lines in some streets that should not be there, says a road safety campaigner.

And the evidence shows the council is breaking its own parking rules, he adds.

The council website’s advice to drivers about the zone introduced in 2011 explicitly states: “All yellow lines have been removed, but it is illegal to park anywhere in the city centre other than in clearly defined bays.

“The zone extends across the whole city centre. You can only park in marked, metered bays.”

Yet campaigner Richard Heneghan has now published photographs of double yellow lines in the city centre, inside the ring road.

Mr Heneghan told us: “You will note that both the Coventry council website and the most recently published annual parking report falsely claim that ALL double yellow lines were removed from the city centre.

“All of the photos attached are within the city centre restricted parking zone – you will even note the zone entry signs in some of the photos.

“The result is the motorists are presented with gateway entry signs to the zone, then pass considerable distances of roads within the zone that are covered in double yellow lines and then simply park when they find a section of the road with no double yellows.

“Add this to the fact there are also considerable stretches of roads within the zone with absolutely no road-side signage pertaining to the restrictions, we get to understand why there have been in excess of 60k PCNs.

“The zone is fatally flawed.”

He has photographed double yellow lines at Bishop Street, Tower Street, Lamb Street, the Burges and Silver Street.

The council finally responded after days, shortly after we published this story, with the following statement…

“The double yellow lines were all removed within the zone. In some areas where black paint has worn out to reveal yellow lines these will be blacked out as part of ongoing maintenance work.”

However, despite the council’s claims, the photographs including those published here show long stretches of clearly marked double yellow lines, and no evidence of any worn black paint.

CCC is not to be trusted. They are rotten to the very core.

Council bosses say the Restricted Parking Zone in the city centre is still enforceable

Coventry City Council is planning to challenge a tribunal decision which said drivers had been wrongly fined to park in the city centre.

The Traffic Penalty Tribunal had been reviewing Coventry City Council's Restricted Parking Zone Scheme (RPZ) to make sure it is fair after complaints it was confusing and there weren't enough signs.

The mile-wide zone - in place across the city centre - was brought in in 2012.

But today Chief Adjudicator Caroline Sheppard OBE upheld appeals on six fines, ruling that they were "unenforceable" because signs were "confusing" and placed in "unusual locations".

That paves the way for more drivers to appeal their tickets too.

There were 58,536 fines dished out within the RPZ in the city centre between October 2012 and August 2017 - around 30 per day.

The council says the PNZ is still enforceable, so presumably civil enforcement officers will be out tomorrow handing out tickets to those parked inside the zone, which covers the whole of the city centre.

But the tribunal's decision to uphold the appeals of the six cases brought to it - and order the fines to be cancelled - brings in to question whether any future fines would be enforceable.

If drivers were fined and appealed to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, it would be likely the same criticisms of the signs would be made and they would be cancelled.

Councillor Tim Mayer responded on Twitter by calling for Coun Innes to be replaced in her cabinet role.

He tweeted: “Time for Innes to make way for someone who can clear up this mess and ensure we provide signage that is complaint, clear and doesn’t put our residents on the back foot. I want to see unfairly taken money refunded.”

I guess the council will appeal this ruling (wasting more of OUR money). Is there anyone with a live brain cell at CCC, because it appears when it comes to parking rules there isn't.

Coventry City Council branded 'delusional' over parking

A council was branded "delusional reminiscent of King Canute" by independent adjudicators over car parking charges.

Coventry City Council's scheme was not understood by motorists, the Traffic Penalty Tribunal said.

Road campaigners have argued a lack of signage made restricted parking zones unclear.

Chief tribunal adjudicator Caroline Sheppard referred to the legendary Viking leader and 11th Century King of England in her report after King Canute was accused of being deluded to assume he had the powers to control nature.

Ms Sheppard said the high number of parking charge notices (PCNs) issued since 2012 should prove the Restricted Parking Zone (RPZ) is not understood by motorists.

"Yet Coventry City Council, seemingly with a determination and delusion reminiscent of King Canute himself, has continued to enforce PCNs.

"The disgruntlement... echoes that felt by [citizens'] medieval forbears about the tolls imposed by Earl Leofric, causing his wife, Lady Godiva, to undertake so memorable a protest to draw attention to their plight."

Interestingly, Bob (tache) Ainsworth passed positive comment about Canute on social media yesterday.

Council blunder sees own vehicles fined for illegal parking



Parking tickets have been issued to the council's own vehicles after an "oversight" saw exemption permits expiring.

The blunder was captured by an eagle eyed Coventry resident yesterday, who noticed that two of Coventry City Council 's vans were parked in Bayley Lane, which is located within the city centre restricted parking zone (RPZ).

However, council vehicles can generally get away with this, as they have exemption certificates displayed on their dashboards.

Unfortunately for these two vans, their exemption certificates expired on May 8, and they were promptly issued with penalty charge notices.

In a statement, a Coventry City Council spokesperson said: "We did issue parking tickets on Bayley Lane (yesterday) morning. Parking rules apply to everyone, no matter where they work."

CoventryLive asked the council three further questions:

• Why did the exemption permits in the vehicles expire, and why were they not renewed?
• Are the council now essentially paying the council for parking tickets?
• Where will the parking fines go/what will they be used for?

In response to these questions, the spokesperson said: "The permit expiring was an oversight as the service hadn't realised it had expired. Parking fines go into the overall council budget."

In a second statement issued later, the council said: "It is the responsibility of the driver to pay for any relevant fines incurred."

By yesterday evening, the same vans in the same location had new exemption certificates displayed.

I truly despair of this council. Incompetence seems to be a qualification for employment.

Call for apology and rare Coventry council EGM after damning tribunal verdict on parking fines

AN extraordinary meeting of Coventry City Council has today been called for following a scathing tribunal report into the discredited city centre parking scheme which has cost motorists millions – and cabinet member Jayne Innes is called on to apologise.

Opposition councillors have formally lodged their request for a rare Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) of the full council to consider the debacle.

Five opposition councillors, the required amount to trigger an EGM, signed the letter to the Lord Mayor to formally call for the meeting.

The letter states: “We the undersigned hereby call for an extraordinary meeting of council to discuss the recent Traffic Penalty Tribunal judgement with regard to signage and enforcement. This follows comments about ‘determination and delusion reminiscent of King Canute himself’.

“Furthermore, we urge the Cabinet Member for City Services to accept responsibility for misleading Full Council and call on the Cabinet Member to apologise and outline steps to be taken to address the issue.”

The Conservative councillors who signed the letter are Couns Tim Mayer, Tim Sawdon, Gary Crooke, David Skinner and Ken Taylor.

A spokesperson for Coventry City Council said: “We have received the request and we now have seven days to consider the next steps.”

Yes next step pay the motorist their money back.