Kerb Is Not a Dropped Footway Within Section 86

A code 27 ticket is only lawful if the kerb was lowered to carriageway level for one of three exact purposes in section 86(1) of the Traffic Management Act 2004: helping pedestrians cross, helping cyclists enter or leave the road, or helping vehicles cross the footway into premises. A kerb that has merely sunk, worn down, been lowered for drainage or utilities, or that was never actually lowered to meet the road level, is not a 'dropped footway' and cannot be enforced against.

Legal basis

Traffic Management Act 2004 s.86(1)(a): the footway, cycle track or verge must have been 'lowered to meet the level of the carriageway for the purpose of (i) assisting pedestrians crossing the carriageway, (ii) assisting cyclists entering or leaving the carriageway, or (iii) assisting vehicles entering or leaving the carriageway across the footway, cycle track or verge'

How to identify this in your case

Look at the kerb where you were ticketed. Is it genuinely lowered flush (or nearly flush) with the road, with the sloped transition stones a constructed crossing has? Or is it just a worn, sunken or damaged kerb, or a lowered section serving a drain or utility cover rather than a crossing point? Photograph the kerb face-on and along its length, with something for scale.

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 27. Section 86(1) of the Traffic Management Act 2004 applies only where the footway, cycle track or verge 'has been lowered to meet the level of the carriageway' for one of three specified purposes: assisting pedestrians crossing, assisting cyclists entering or leaving the carriageway, or assisting vehicles entering or leaving the carriageway across the footway. The kerb at this location does not satisfy that definition. I put the council to strict proof that the kerb adjacent to my vehicle was a dropped footway within the meaning of section 86(1), constructed and lowered for one of the statutory purposes, and not merely a worn, sunken or otherwise lowered section of kerb. Without that proof no contravention arose and the penalty should be cancelled.

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Kerb Is Not a Dropped Footway Within Section 86

Legal basis

How to identify this in your case

Sample appeal wording

Beat It writes this argument automatically

Sources

Related appeal grounds

Next steps