How Can I Challenge A Yellow Box Junction Parking PCN?
This blog serves to answer the question “How Can I Challenge A Yellow Box Junction Parking PCN?” You must be aware of the presence of yellow box junctions across your daily route to prevent your vehicle from being stuck inside the boundaries of one. It is helpful to also mentally practice timing your entry into a yellow box junction considering the situation to perfect the activity and of course filming video clips of your vehicle at road junctions in your local council.
How Can I Challenge A Yellow Box Junction Parking PCN?
A Yellow Box Junction Parking PCN will only be cancelled if you can prove that your vehicle passed through the yellow box junction without deliberately stopping there or obstructing the area, which can be done by using a video clip. This video can be filmed by a passenger travelling with you and you must record clips of your vehicle passing through yellow box junctions each time you do so to create a sizable database of such videos.
Unless your council views an authentic video which clearly shows your vehicle passing through the traffic violation location that day, it will not accept your PCN challenge. You may remember that you passed through the yellow box junction in a few seconds but if there is no evidence to support your case, this assertion will be pointless.
Another way of challenging your PCN can be by mentioning mitigating circumstances such as a medical emergency which caused you to lost control over your vehicle and stop it inside the yellow box junction as your limbs were incapacitated or you were losing consciousness. This incident also needs to be supported by a video clip that shows you feeling unwell while driving your vehicle from a few minutes before reaching the yellow box junction.
The other piece of evidence essential with a PCN challenge that mentions mitigating circumstances is authentic medical certificates from your General Practitioner that describe your serious health condition. These documents need to be dated from at least a few days before your yellow box junction parking contravention.
In many cases, PCNs are not enforceable and you may be able to win your case and avoid having to pay your fine.
You could begin the process by speaking to an online solicitor for as little as £5.
What is a Penalty Charge Notice?
A Penalty Charge Notice is a monetary penalty issued to drivers or motorists for committing certain traffic contraventions including violating Parking, Bus Lane and Moving Traffic restrictions. A PCN is issued for failing to follow Parking zone, bus lane enforcement and moving traffic restrictions mentioned in the Road Traffic Act 1984 and the Traffic Management Act 2004.
A penalty charge notice can be handed to you by a Civil Enforcement Officer or dispatched to your (DVLA) residential address by post. CCTV cameras and Civil Enforcement Officers observe traffic contraventions before a violation is detected and the vehicle is charged with a PCN.
A PCN might also be issued for failing to pay road charges on time. You have 28 days to decide how and if you would like to challenge your Penalty Charge Notice. After 28 days if you have neither paid nor challenged your PCN, you will be sent a charge certificate from the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.
If you don’t challenge a PCN, you should pay the fine within 28 days, otherwise, its amount will increase by 50%. A £70 PCN will be worth £105 if you pay it in the 14 days after receiving your charge certificate. For a PCN issued in London councils you have to pay £130 for a Bus Lane or Moving Traffic PCN (and a higher level parking PCN). This further increases by 50% in the 14 days after receiving your charge certificate to £195.
Why Have I Been Given A Yellow Box Junction Parking PCN?
You may have been given a yellow box junction parking PCN by a CCTV camera which decided that the duration your vehicle spent within the yellow box junction exceeded the permissible time it should have taken you to cover the distance (given your vehicle’s speed at the instant). If you have clearly parked or stopped your vehicle inside a yellow box junction, it is clearly an act of negligence and will lead to a PCN which would be almost impossible to challenge.
A few seconds, to over a minute is the maximum time limit you can spend at a yellow box junction, as you will aim to correctly time your entry into one to ensure that you don’t do so while the traffic light is about to turn red (or end up getting stuck due to traffic moving in front of your vehicle).
The intention of the PCN is to charge (and prevent) vehicles from blocking a yellow box junction and generally hampering the flow of traffic.
How do I need to prepare for challenging a Yellow Box Junction Parking PCN by using the online form?
You must have a video clip or a series of photographs that show your vehicle moving through a yellow box junction area without pausing for more than the required amount of time (that applied to the vehicle in front of you). The purpose of the evidence is to prove that your vehicle did not stop at a yellow box junction (at the area mentioned on your PCN) or deliberately halt at the specified location. Your video shows the number of seconds your vehicle’s tyres remained still at a yellow box junction and how much time it took to move beyond the area.
The trick is to carefully consider entering a yellow box junction by calculating how and if you will be able to move through the area smoothly (knowing your exit route from the junction) without being stranded there waiting for other vehicles to pass by. For instance if you enter a yellow box junction while the lights are green, and were unable to exit in time as the lights changed to red, you can get your PCN cancelled by using a video clip to demonstrate your case.
It is imperative for your case to be genuine and not a hasty appeal where you are unable to correctly remember what happened at the traffic violation scene and end up mentioning excuses for your actions. If you genuinely obstructed the yellow box junction without having any plan for action to exit the area in time, you will have a hard time challenging your PCN with any authentic evidence.
So you can use a video filmed by someone travelling in your vehicle clearly showing your vehicle’s path while moving towards the yellow box junction and exiting it. This piece of evidence can be stored on your computer as part of a daily series of video clips showing your road journeys in your local council.
You have to regularly record these clips of your driving actions to always be ready with available evidence material, and that is mandatory for a Yellow Box Junction Parking PCN. The text of your PCN challenge can first be composed on a word processing software and then transferred onto the form, to refine your text for any errors and to eliminate any reasons that mention a lack of awareness of the yellow box junction contravention code.
How can I send in my PCN challenge form by mail and which kinds of evidence can I use with my appeal?
Yes, the second method available at nearly all councils for challenging your PCN is by filling in the appeals form on the reverse of your Notice to Owner document and attaching evidence in the form of photographs or some authentic documents relating to your mitigating circumstances such as a medical certificate or your vehicle’s insurance documents. The evidence must be directly related to your yellow box junction PCN so it can most often just be some photographs taken from your vehicle showing it passing over the yellow box junction (although it is preferable to send in a video clip on the council website instead) at the contravention area.
It is easier to relate the entire incident of a few minutes from an authentic video clip and photographs might not be able to correctly prove the time for which your vehicle was inside the yellow box junction although if you have the exact date stamp on a series of 6 to 8 photographs, it might serve your purpose.
Here you are writing your PCN challenge by hand but it is better to first type it out in a word processing software such as MS Word, to ensure that you correctly mention any mitigating circumstances and match them with your available evidence or clearly assert that the contravention never happened.
This appeal can be finalized in 2 or 3 days by adding in your evidence material into the grounds of the challenge and checking that you have decided on the correct mitigating circumstances permissible for a yellow box junction PCN (if that is the case). You must ensure that you don’t mention any reasons that include forgetfulness or a casual drive through the yellow box junction which you are unable to correctly recall.
Once the text is finalized, you can copy it down onto your written appeals form (on your Notice to Owner). It is handy to create a checklist for your evidence material and attach it with your appeal. This ensures that your council does not exclude any evidence or miss out on your hard work and dedication to put forward an authentic PCN challenge.
Can I further challenge a Parking PCN with the London Tribunals if my appeal is dismissed by my local council (inside London)?
If you have received a Yellow Box Junction PCN (Code 32) from a council of a local London Authority or by Transport for London, you can dispute your Notice of Rejection of Representations (from the Council) with the London Tribunals. Your Notice of Rejection of Representations has a form attached to it which needs to be completed.and posted to the London Tribunals. What you will write on the form will be the text of your appeal to the Notice of Rejection served by your council and needs to be carefully composed by mentioning your mitigating circumstances which led to the traffic violation or by stating how you think the traffic restriction was never breached.
The contents of your appeal to the London Tribunals need to be based around evidence material as the London Tribunals is rejudging a case decided by your local council and will be provided by strong evidence from them to contest the trial.
Regardless of whichever council (local London Authority)you have recieved a parking PCN from, you need to send the completed form to the following address (and ensure that you allow upto 2 days for first class mail to deliver your challenge and upto 5 days for second class mail) :
London Tribunals,
PO Box 10598,
Nottingham,
NG6 6DR
If you would prefer a quicker way to send in your challenge to the London Tribunals you can visit the London Tribunals Website. You can also choose to dispute the “Notice of Rejection” from your council with the London Tribunals online by clicking on the “Access the Appellants Portal” button on this webpage.
All you will be required to do is simply enter your Vehicle Registration Number, PCN number, and the reference number or code from your “Notice of Rejection of Representations” letter. Evidence to be uploaded here can be different from the evidence material you have used to support the formal representation sent to your local council but the evidence needs to be properly matched with the case you have argued in your appeal to the London Tribunals.
For your PCN with the contravention code 31, you need to clearly show the London Tribunals that you did not park your vehicle in the middle of a road, on the footway or on the verge of a road. . Solid evidence relating to your traffic violation has to be ready to send to the London Tribunals which refutes the case put forward by your council.
You cannot challenge this PCN by providing mitigating circumstances as there are almost know emergency situations which compel you to leave your vehicle idle in the middle of a street or on the footway.
The London Tribunals is an independent adjudicating authority and it impartially considers the case put forward by your council and your version of the events at the traffic violation scene. So if you have some crucial evidence that shows something new which escaped the knowledge of the council or the CCTV camera monitoring the traffic violation scene, the London Tribunals will consider these details to be true.
Can I further dispute a Parking PCN with the contravention code 31 at the Traffic Penalty Tribunal if my local council (outside London) has dismissed my challenge?
A parking PCN served from a local authority outside London can further be disputed with the Traffic Penalty Tribunal. The Traffic Penalty Tribunal is responsible for addressing challenges to Notices of Rejections of Representations from councils in England (outside London) and in Wales.
The Traffic Penalty Tribunal website requires you to enter details given on your Notice of Rejection of Representations, after opening this webpage. Once you have entered these details, you can click on “Next” to access the Traffic Penalty Tribunal PCN challenge portal. Before you can access this challenge portal, you need to click on “Start Your Appeal Here” on this webpage and “Submit and Appeal To The Traffic Penalty Tribunal Now” on this webpage. If you access the Traffic Penalty Tribunal’s main webpage, you need to first select the kind of PCN for which you have received a Notice of Rejection from your council.
In this case with the PCN contravention code 31, your Penalty Charge Notice is a Parking PCN. After this you will be redirected to the webpage where you have to select England (outside London). Once you click on England (outside London), you will be led to this webpage where you need to click on “Submit Your Appeal To The Traffic Penalty Tribunal Now”
You can watch this instructional video here to learn about your challenge process. The Traffic Penalty Tribunal requires you to create an email address unless you already have one to dispute your council’s Notice of Rejection of Representations on its website. It is important for you to submit your challenge on the Traffic Penalty Tribunal Website within 28 days of being sent your Notice of Rejection to your Parking PCN.
Conclusion
This blog post addressed the question “How Can I Challenge A Yellow Box Junction Parking PCN?” You cannot successfully challenge your Yellow Box Junction PCN without authentic evidence material such as a video clip of the traffic violation scene to show your version of events as they took place. This evidence forms the centerpiece of your PCN challenge as you explain how the amount of time that you spent inside the yellow box junction was small enough to be neglected (or disregarded for the contravention code 31).