School Keep-Clear Marking Worn Away or Not as Prescribed

A code 48 ticket depends on the prescribed 'SCHOOL KEEP CLEAR' zig-zag marking (TSRGD diagram 1027.1) actually conveying the restriction to drivers. If the zig-zags or the lettering are so worn, resurfaced-over or incomplete that a driver cannot make out the marking where the vehicle stopped, the restriction was not properly conveyed and the ticket is open to challenge. Minor fading is not enough on its own.

Legal basis

Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016 (SI 2016/362), Schedule 7 Part 4 item 10 (prescribed marking, diagram 1027.1) and Part 6 paragraph 3; 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 where your vehicle stopped, close up and along its full length, as soon after the ticket as possible. Strong cases: the 'SCHOOL KEEP CLEAR' letters are illegible, whole zig-zag sections are missing or tarmacked over, or the marking's start/end cannot be made out where you stopped. Legible-but-faded paint is a weak case — judge your photos honestly before relying on this.

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 48. The alleged contravention depends on the prescribed 'SCHOOL KEEP CLEAR' road marking at item 10 of the sign table in Part 4 of Schedule 7 to the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016 conveying the restriction to drivers. At the point 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 recorded location, that it 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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School Keep-Clear Marking 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