Bus Stop Clearway Markings Worn Away or Not as Prescribed

A code 47 ticket relies on the prescribed yellow bus stop 'cage' marking (TSRGD diagram 1025.1 family). If the marking is so worn, patched-over or fragmentary that it no longer shows a driver the extent of the clearway, it does not properly convey the stopping ban and the ticket is open to challenge. Minor wear alone is not enough — the marking must fail to communicate the restriction where the vehicle stopped.

Legal basis

Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016 (SI 2016/362), Schedule 7 Part 4 item 9 (prescribed clearway marking, diagrams 1025.1/1025.3/1025.4) and Part 6 paragraph 1; substantial-compliance principle in Herron & Parking Appeals Ltd v The Parking Adjudicator [2011] EWCA Civ 905

How to identify this in your case

Photograph the marking exactly where your vehicle stopped, close up and wide, ideally the same week as the ticket. Strong cases: the yellow box line is missing along one side or end, the 'BUS STOP' legend is illegible, resurfacing has erased sections, or the cage boundary cannot be made out where you stopped. Faded-but-visible paint is a weak case — be honest about what your photos show.

Sample appeal wording

Before you send this

Deadline. A late submission can be turned down without your argument being read. Check your notice for the deadline and how it is counted.
Paying may end it. Paying can count as accepting the notice and can close a challenge already under way. Part-paying or acknowledging an old debt can also revive a time limit that had expired.
The amount can change. Check what happens to the sum if you challenge — it may be held, re-offered lower, or keep rising, and fees or enforcement can continue meanwhile.
Use the official route. Use the method, recipient and form your notice specifies, with any reference, evidence and signature it asks for. Sent elsewhere, it may not count.
Only say what is true. Do not copy any statement of fact unless it is true for you, and check the legal point still applies. Delete what does not fit. It may be treated as your statement.
Careful what you volunteer. Avoid unnecessary admissions — naming the driver or accepting responsibility can remove arguments. But answer anything you are legally required to answer, and do include the evidence your ground needs.
Keep the record. Keep what you sent, the attachments, any receipt, and the reply. Note the next deadline.

Sample wording to adapt and send yourself — it may not fit your notice or the stage you are at.

I am appealing this penalty charge issued under contravention code 47. The alleged contravention depends on the prescribed bus stop clearway road marking at item 9 of the sign table in Part 4 of Schedule 7 to the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016 conveying the extent of the clearway to drivers. At the location where my vehicle stopped, the marking was in a condition that did not convey that restriction, as shown in my enclosed photographs. I put the authority to strict proof, by contemporaneous dated photographs of the marking at the point where my vehicle was recorded, that the clearway marking substantially complied with the prescribed diagram and adequately conveyed the restriction on the date of the alleged contravention. If it cannot, I ask that the penalty charge be cancelled.

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Bus Stop Clearway Markings Worn Away or Not as Prescribed

Legal basis

How to identify this in your case

Sample appeal wording

Beat It writes this argument automatically

Sources

Related appeal grounds

Next steps