Electric vehicle bay signs or markings were wrong
An electric vehicle charging bay is marked out on the road and signed at the kerb, and the question on an appeal is always the same one: taken together, did those markings and signs tell a driver arriving where you did that the bay was restricted to electric vehicles at that time? Be careful with two things people assume are defects and are not. There is no requirement for a plug symbol painted on the tarmac. And the wording in the bay may lawfully be left off altogether — where wording is used it has to be one of the approved forms, such as ELECTRIC VEHICLES or ELECTRIC VEHS, but its absence on its own proves nothing. The argument that can succeed is inadequate notice overall: no usable sign at all on your approach, a sign hidden behind foliage or a parked van, one facing away or fixed where a driver cannot see it, a sign faded past legibility, wording that matches no approved form, or markings so worn the bay itself cannot be made out.
Legal basis
Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016 (S.I. 2016/362) Schedule 7 (road markings and miscellaneous upright signs indicating stopping, waiting and loading restrictions), including Part 5 paragraph 1(2), under which the bay legend may be varied to 'ELECTRIC VEHICLES', 'ELECTRIC VEHS', 'ELECTRIC MOTORCYCLES', 'ELECTRIC M/CYCLES' or 'ELECTRIC M/Cs', and Schedule 4 Part 2 (on-street parking control signs); Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 s.64 (general provisions as to traffic signs) and s.65 (powers and duties of traffic authorities as to placing of traffic signs); regulation 18 of the Local Authorities' Traffic Orders (Procedure) (England and Wales) Regulations 1996 (S.I. 1996/2489); R (Herron and Parking Appeals Ltd) v The Parking Adjudicator [2011] EWCA Civ 905 at 35 to 38 and 43 (enforceability requires adequate notice of the restriction; the test is substantial compliance with the prescribed sign or marking judged by whether the motorist was adequately informed, not strict compliance)
How to identify this in your case
Photograph the bay and the upright sign from roughly a driver's eye line on the approach you used, not from directly above or alongside. Then ask the only question that matters: could a driver arriving that way have understood the bay was restricted to electric vehicles at that time? Do not lead on a missing plug symbol — no such carriageway symbol is required. Do not lead on missing bay wording either, because the regulations permit the legend to be omitted. If wording IS present but matches none of the approved forms, that is worth raising. The strongest facts are a sign that was absent, obscured, turned away, illegible or positioned where you could not see it, or bay markings so worn that the bay was not apparent.
Sample appeal wording
Sample wording to adapt and send yourself — it may not fit your notice or the stage you are at. Replace the bracketed prompts with your own details; leave any case citation as it is.
Dear Sir or Madam, Re: PCN [NUMBER] — electric vehicle bay — [LOCATION] — [DATE] I make representations against the above penalty charge notice on the ground that the restriction was not adequately signed. The Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016 prescribe the bay markings in Schedule 7 and the on-street parking control signs in Schedule 4 Part 2. Sections 64 and 65 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 and regulation 18 of the Local Authorities’ Traffic Orders (Procedure) (England and Wales) Regulations 1996 require the authority to place such signs as are requisite for securing that adequate information as to the effect of the order is made available to persons using the road. I do not suggest that any single component was mandatory. My case is that the signage and markings taken as a whole did not convey adequate information about the restriction to a driver arriving as I did. At [LOCATION] on [DATE] the position was as follows: [Describe only what you actually saw, and delete the rest: there was no upright sign visible from my approach / the upright sign was obscured by foliage or by a parked vehicle / the upright sign faced away from my approach and could not be read before parking / the upright sign was faded or damaged beyond legibility / the upright sign was positioned where a driver could not reasonably see it / the bay markings were so worn that the bay itself could not be made out / the wording used in the bay does not correspond to any form permitted by Schedule 7.] [Attach photographs taken from approximately the driver's eye line on the approach, and state the date and time each was taken.] In R (Herron and Parking Appeals Ltd) v The Parking Adjudicator [2011] EWCA Civ 905 the Court of Appeal held, at paragraphs 35 to 37, that enforceability depends on adequate notice of the restriction having been given to the road user, and that the question is whether the signs and markings at the place of the alleged contravention adequately informed the motorist of it. Taken as a whole, the signage here did not adequately inform a driver parking where I did that the bay was restricted to electric vehicles. I ask you to cancel this penalty charge notice. Yours faithfully, [YOUR NAME] [YOUR ADDRESS]
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