School keep clear - out of term time enforcement

In 2014 new map based Traffic Management Orders ('TMO') which established the parking restrictions were introduced which replaced the former schedule based ones seemingly without changes to the rules, but was that true?

This is from the new TMO:

Mr Mustard happens to be fighting a PCN given out on the school keep clear markings (the yellow zig zags) on 6 January 2020 which was an inset day, in Goodwyn Avenue, the location of St Martin's School. There were no children in school that day so effectively term started on 7 January 2020. The entire keep clear marking was parked up and after being politely challenged the traffic warden, having issued a PCN to one car and taken advice from a more senior colleague by radio, walked on and left all the other cars alone. Barnet Council still want their penalty of £110 paid though (rather oddly it would have been £130 if done by cctv, a matter which Mr Mustard will consider on another day).

Mr Mustard found the original TMO from 1996. It said that the school keep clear markings are only enforced during term times (hard to put on the signs as actual dates would be needed)

The replacement TMO says this:

Thus the rules apply every Monday - Friday regardless of whether the school is in term or outside of it. Whilst the traffic wardens walked past schools without issuing PCns from 1 to 5 January 2020 (they may have not been working on 1 January) the remote enforcement by camera continued as normal on those days as if there was some traffic management problem to solve or a bank account to fill. Mr Mustard thinks that the general mood of the public is that enforcing outside schools on New Year's Day is profoundly unfair.

At East Barnet School (to take a random example) term started on 6 January so were any PCNs issued by camera in 2020 before that date? Oh yes, three of them, which got 2020 off to a bad start for three people and will have sullied their view of Barnet Council and rightly so.

Mr Mustard then thought to check something, the council's website on which a lot of people, including Mr Mustard, rely to check the rules of bank holiday enforcement.

There are therefore two examples of how Barnet Council say one thing and do something different. They changed the TMO from term time to all year without advertising the fact and secondly they say they won't enforce school keep clear markings on bank holidays (when schools as well as banks are closed) but they are sending out PCNs by post (traffic wardens generally walk past closed schools so it is only the schools with cameras which get enforced).

Was the issue of PCNs on New Year's Day a one off error? No!

Mr Mustard will be writing to the parking manager asking him to refund those bank holiday school keep clear PCNs. What do you want to bet that the answer will be a polite no thank you?

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Barnet Council cross the line

The registered keeper of the car with the doors open has been sent a PCN after stopping on the double yellows to board a child, this is an exemption provided you are reasonably quick about it. The PCN though isn't for being on the double yellows, as they cannot be enforced by cctv, but for being

As it happens 'restricted area' is not defined in legislation. What the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016 say about the markings on the ground is this:

Note that the prohibition in para 2 refers to stopping 'on' the markings. For a long time Mr Mustard would win at the tribunal if the vehicle stopped in the middle of the road, not over the marking themselves. Then, on 2 August 2018, an adjudicator with decades of experience decided what would become a key case at the tribunal and thus a decision which his colleagues were very likely to follow (and it wasn't a decision that Mr Mustard disagreed with)

Thus it is clear that Adjudicators regard the school keep clear markings as applying to the centre of the road, the same as for single and double yellows.

Why, Mr Mustard hears you ask, was the car on the other side of the road sent a PCN? Automation is probably the answer. The school markings are monitored during the applicable hours by a cctv camera. It selects short bursts of footage which the computer decides is a contravention. Those clips are then watched, in theory, by a human being who has to decide if a contravention has occurred or not. It is perfectly possible that the operative charged with this task popped out for a fag, a cup of tea or a jimmy riddle whilst the clip was running and simply ticked the yes box to this being a contravention when he/she got back to their desk.

Mr Mustard will fire an email off to the parking manager whilst simultaneously making representations through the usual channels. He doubts this PCN will live for long.

Simple logic, if stopping on the double yellow is part of the restricted area so is the disabled bay the council have painted there.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

The PCN didn't live long once Mr Mustard emailed parking management directly.

That is a proper apology.

School zig zags - don't stop there

East Barnet School

Mr Mustard was consulted by a motorist who had been caught on the school keep clear markings as he stopped on them briefly in order to reverse past them into a parking space, the car in question is the one to the right of the word 'clear'.

In order to move from forward motion to reverse it is necessary to stop for a short while during which time you have to change gear and the laws of physics require that you are stationary for an instant. The computer decided the lack of motion should be considered for a PCN and a human being pressed the button to confirm the computer selection. How much time they spent thinking about this we do not know.

The contravention on school keep clear markings is of 'stopping' and a millisecond may well be long enough to make out a contravention but context is key. In this case Mr Mustard did not think a penalty was deserved and so he wrote to the parking manager:

In this case 'T' stops fleetingly in order to reverse into a space which would otherwise not be accessible. To my mind he doesn't deserve to be sent a PCN because this was a trivial period of stopping for good reason, although presumably a team member thought he did & technically yes he did stop.

I was wondering if you might think the same? If so, please cancel the PCN & save us all from extra paperwork.

It turned out that the manager did agree and the PCN was cancelled accordingly:

This is sensible as there wasn't any intent to do anything dangerous which would endanger the life of a child and none are in the picture that early afternoon.

Notwithstanding that Mr Mustard has put this PCN to bed he suggests you don't park in this way but go up the road past the zig zags, turn around where safe and then return and enter the parking space head on such that you don't have to stop on the entrance markings.

Mr Mustard has seen a PCN lost at the tribunal because the motorist pulled up on the zig zags in order to execute a 3 point turn. Mr Mustard agrees with that decision. Outside a school is not the place to be turning around.

The other problem he sees is when the keep clear zig zag lines are placed outside fire and ambulance stations. Those probably won't have a time plate as they apply 24 hours a day. He saw a PCN lost at Hartley Close around the corner from Mill Hill Fire station for this reason.

One further problem he has seen is when you have to stop on or alongside the keep clear markings because the road is only wide enough to let one car through and you obligingly waited for the other car. If you have your dash cam running that recording will help you overturn a PCN for stopping, as it was to avoid an accident, which amounts to an exemption.

Mr Mustard hopes that his advice keeps you out of trouble.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

The school zig-zag trap

There is a common belief in Barnet that school zig zags are not enforced during school holidays. Traffic wardens do walk straight past (unless there is also a single yellow which is operative) but the cameras are still on.

Having read the above report Mr Mustard found that the school was closed from 1 to 17 April. He then checked the Barnet Open data moving traffic dashboard for that period and found that cameras had issued 138 PCN of which 7 were at Hale Drive. So you must be careful. Here are the listed camera locations but it is best to look up before you stop on the zig zags

CCTV can easily be moved so don't rely on this list, look up the poles for cameras, possibly like these

If in doubt, stay off the zig-zags.

The PCN which went to the tribunal is a pure a case of revenue raising as you can find but the adjudicator's hands were tied as strictly a contravention had occurred and his job is to apply the law - he evidently wasn't impressed with the council though.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

School zig zags - do your 3 point turn somewhere else

The above is the council's justification for school zig zags which have in the main been largely respected by the driving public with only 475 PCN having been issued up until May 17.

Mr Mustard wonders why a location, such as at the school in St Joseph's Grove in Hendon (right behind the town hall as it happens) therefore has restricted hours of 8.30am to 4.30pm whereas other schools have 2 or 3 sets of times, corresponding to the likely arrival and leaving times and possibly lunch times for a secondary school if lots of children are likely to be heading out of school. He can't see a need for a restriction at 11am for example.

Mr Mustard's client was unlucky. He was driving along and then realised he needed to go the other way, he pulled up on the zig zags to use the adjoining piece of road to reverse into and at that very moment another car came along and made it dangerous to continue with the manoeuvre so he waited, which made his stop a few seconds long and then the computer controlled cctv nabbed him. You can watch it here

Mr Mustard didn't think that was cricket so yesterday he wrote to parking management as follows, and he eagerly awaits their reply:

If you watch the cctv the car stops in order to reverse into the side turning and then go the other way. This is a perfectly reasonable manoeuvre but one which your camera picked up and then presumably a human being authorised the issue of a PCN. It is necessary to stop in order to reverse direction and normally it would be for a trivial time (de minimis) but in this case the driver very considerately stopped to avoid an accident as a car was approaching and then he reversed a few seconds later.

I agree that technically the vehicle stopped and that is a contravention but it is not the mischief that the zig zags are aimed at, which is parents/guardians/etc dropping off or collecting their children. There isn't a child in the cctv anywhere. I question the need for all day enforcement.

I think this is an unfair PCN and accordingly should be cancelled.

They might or they might not cancel, we'll see. If not, an adjudicator will get to decide the matter later on.

You, dear reader, will learn from this though, won't you?

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

East Barnet School - a zig zag problem

Of course you don't stop on school zig-zags, unless you have to.

This is a tale of an over zealous computer and an apparently under zealous contractor, NSL Ltd, as represented by an unknown employee (maybe).

You can see that what might happen here, especially at school drop off time is that parents may be perfectly properly dropping little Johnnie off after the zig-zags have ended and probably on both sides of the road. That narrows the carriageway way down to a single car width through which self evidently two cars cannot pass in opposite directions at the same time, ergo one of them has to give way and probably stop. If you are heading in the direction shown above then you have no choice but to stop on the zig-zags. No-one gets in or out of your car so surely you won't be sent a PCN, will you? Oh yes you will, by NSL Ltd on behalf of Barnet Council. Here is a photograph from one such event.

Mr Mustard's client was driving the teal coloured car (the Barnet Council corporate colour as it happens) and she could not proceed as the black car in front had stopped to let another car pass in the opposite direction. This was the first occasion on which she received a PCN, she got another one 5 days later when she was equally courteous to a driver coming the other way. The second PCN has been cancelled and the first should be very shortly as Mr Mustard has raised the problem with the parking manager.

The decision as to whether or not to issue PCN for cctv derived contraventions is undertaken, under contract (not yet seen) by NSL Ltd. Mr Mustard thinks that this breaches public policy interests as a private company, a profit motivated company, should not be undertaking public interest decisions. Mr Mustard has this argument in front of an adjudicator at the moment.

The council is required to have a belief that a contravention has occurred before deciding to issue a PCN. Mr Mustard has watched the cctv. It shows the reflection of a car in the side of the black car going through in the other direction and then later on when his client moves up another car also going through in the other direction. So it is clear that a contravention did not occur.

Therefore, either the computer decided to issue a PCN which means that the council itself did not hold a belief or the operator who watched the video isn't up to the job. Neither is a satisfactory situation.

Mr Mustard dealt with the same problem in Richmond Rd last year.  Clealry lessons learned were not applied to other locations.

Mr Mustard has asked for compensation for his client who has been wronged and who has been put to time & trouble and the worry of having to find £260 just after Xmas when budgets are tight. Luckily she is a client of Cafe Buzz who told her about Mr Mustard. She won't now be parting with a bean.

If this happened to you, do not pay, make representations & take the case to the tribunal if rejected.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

You can't do this Barnet Council

The school has an address in Byng Road and the school entrance is also there. You cannot therefore put school entrance markings in Wentworth Rd as the road does not contain a school. The ziz zag lines 1027 are prescribed for use outside schools, as the Traffic Signs Manual tells you.

A different idea would be to take the existing school roadway entrance and make it wider and create a safe drop off zone within the school grounds which are extensive and which would make Wentworth Rd quieter for residents as a by product.

Parents: a camera will doubtless go up at this location so do not stop on the zig zags themselves.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard