Resident receives PCN because Mercedes' wheels were outside white lines

Whilst it’s not unusual for a PCN to be the subject of discussion on the forum, one particular case as really divided opinion. A Chiswick resident was issued a PCN outside his home because his Mercedes 4 x4 is too big for the bay and therefore did not fit within the white lines.

The PCN stated that he was not correctly parked, but does he have grounds for appeal?

Last year we ran an article about the discrepancies of parking bay widths in Chiswick. Hounslow Council had bowed to parking pressure and embarked on a course of bay widening whilst Ealing Council appeared to have gone in the opposite direction.

After having their road resurfaced by Ealing Council, residents of one road found that their CPZ parking bays had noticeably shrunk to the extent of a Nissan Micra's wheels sitting on top of the white line. In direct contrast, the verdict on the new CPZ parking bays in Hounslow's part of W4 is one of joy. "After campaigning for wider bays the council has now painted lovely new ones in our road and in the surrounding roads. It was worth all the effort!"

Legally, parking bays must be a minimum of 1.8 metres wide and a maximum of 2.7 metres. The majority of the bays in Chiswick are the 1.8 metre minimum meaning that vehicles with larger wheel bases have issues parking legally. To put this into context a Vauxhall Astra is 1.75m wide, Ford Focus 1.8m wide, Renault Megane, 1.9m wide and a Nissan Micra, 1.66m wide.

A PCN issued in similar circumstances (although not in Chiswick) was successfully appealed on the basis that if the traffic order requires a vehicle to be parked correctly within the bay markings then the council has a statutory duty to ensure that a traffic sign that adequately conveys this effect is placed on or near the road to make this information available to motorists. In this case neither the bay marking nor the traffic sign placed, adequately conveyed that a vehicle must park wholly within a bay marking, therefore the council failed in their statutory duty and thus the PCN was cancelled.

Whether you’re for or against 4 x 4’s on the streets of W4, councils do take details of the make and model of all vehicles when issuing permits “So if there are vehicles that are too big to fit into the spaces then they shouldn't be given permits,” reasoned another resident.

Details of parking regulations and how to appeal a PCN can be found here:
http://www.hounslow.gov.uk/index/transport_and_streets/parking/street_parking.htm

March 31, 2011