School Street signs were wrong or missing
A School Street restriction is signed with a "no motor vehicles" sign plus a plate showing when it applies and who is exempt. The question on an appeal is whether that signage, taken as a whole on the approach you actually drove, told you the restriction was in force at that time. So the useful facts are a sign that was missing from your approach, obscured, faded past reading, facing the wrong way, or a plate whose hours or exemptions did not match the order or could not be read. These schemes are relatively new — but a small imperfection in otherwise clear signing will not help, because the test is substantial compliance, not perfection.
Legal basis
Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016 (S.I. 2016/362); 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), requiring the authority to place such traffic signs as it considers requisite for securing that adequate information as to the effect of the order is made available to persons using the road; the school street traffic regulation order itself; 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 judged by whether the motorist was adequately informed, not strict compliance)
How to identify this in your case
Photograph the signs on the approach you used, from roughly a driver’s eye line rather than standing next to them, and photograph the plate close enough to read the hours and exemptions. Then compare the plate against what the traffic order actually says — a plate that contradicts the order, or that cannot be read, is a strong fact. Ask the whole-signage question: could a driver coming your way at that time have understood that motor vehicles were prohibited? One caution before arguing that a sign does not match the prescribed design: section 64 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 allows a sign of another character where the authority has specially authorised it, so a design mismatch is not automatically a defect and it is worth asking the council whether an authorisation exists. Do not argue that a particular component was missing as though each one were separately mandatory; in particular, nothing establishes that an advance warning sign at the previous junction is required in every School Street layout, so lead on what was wrong with the signing you actually passed.
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/Madam, Re: PCN [NUMBER] — School Streets — [DATE] I make representations against this penalty charge notice on the ground that the restriction was not adequately signed on the approach I used. I do not suggest that any individual sign was separately mandatory; my case is that the signing taken as a whole did not convey the restriction to me. 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 traffic signs as are requisite for securing that adequate information as to the effect of the order is made available to persons using the road, in the forms prescribed by the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016 or otherwise specially authorised. I note that section 64 of that Act permits a sign of another character where the relevant authority has authorised it, so I do not rely on a departure from a prescribed form by itself; if you say the signing here was specially authorised, please provide the authorisation. At [STREET] on [DATE]: - [Defect 1: e.g. 'Main no-motor-vehicles sign obscured by parked HGV'] - [Defect 2: e.g. 'Supplementary plate stating operating hours illegible due to faded vinyl'] Photographs taken on [DATE] attached. Applying R (Herron and Parking Appeals Ltd) v The Parking Adjudicator [2011] EWCA Civ 905 at paragraphs 35 to 37, enforceability depends on adequate notice of the restriction having been given, and the signage here did not adequately inform a driver of the restriction at the time and place of the alleged contravention. Please cancel the PCN. Yours faithfully, [NAME]
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