Bus Stop Ticket Issued Outside the Hours on the Clearway Sign

A bus stop clearway only operates 24 hours a day if the upright sign shows no times. If the upright clearway sign displays an operating period (for example 7am–7pm), the stopping ban applies only during that period, so a ticket timed outside the signed hours is not a contravention at all.

Legal basis

Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016 (SI 2016/362), Schedule 7 Part 6 paragraph 1 — the marking with the relevant upright sign conveys the prohibition at any time only where the sign shows no time period, otherwise only during the period shown

How to identify this in your case

Check the contravention time printed on the PCN against the hours shown on the upright bus stop clearway sign at the stop. Photograph the sign clearly enough to read any time plate, together with a wide shot tying it to the stop. If the sign shows hours and your PCN time falls outside them, this ground applies. If the sign shows no hours, the clearway runs at all times and this ground does not apply.

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. Under Schedule 7 Part 6 paragraph 1 of the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016, where the upright bus stop clearway sign displays a time period, the prohibition on stopping applies only during that period. The upright sign at this location displays an operating period, as shown in my enclosed photographs, and the time of the alleged contravention stated on the penalty charge notice falls outside that period. Accordingly no contravention occurred. I put the authority to proof of the signed hours in force at this stop on the date in question, and I ask that the penalty charge be cancelled.

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Bus Stop Ticket Issued Outside the Hours on the Clearway Sign

Legal basis

How to identify this in your case

Sample appeal wording

Beat It writes this argument automatically

Sources

Related appeal grounds

Next steps