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proceduralUK · England & WalesDifficulty: moderate

Vehicle Not Adjacent to the Dropped Footway Section

Section 86 only bites where the vehicle is parked on the carriageway 'adjacent to' the lowered section. If your car sat alongside the full-height kerb or the sloping transition stones, and only its bumper overhung the start of the drop — or it was beside the crossing but not next to the lowered stones themselves — the council must prove genuine adjacency to the lowered section from its officer's photographs, which frequently do not show it.

Legal basis

Traffic Management Act 2004 s.86(1): prohibition applies to a vehicle 'parked on the carriageway adjacent to a footway, cycle track or verge' that 'has been lowered to meet the level of the carriageway'; the burden of proving the contravention rests on the enforcing authority

How to identify this in your case

Check the council's PCN photos against the kerb line. Were your wheels and bodywork actually alongside the lowered, flush section — or alongside the full-height kerb or the angled transition stones, with little or no overlap of the flat dropped section? Photograph your parked position relative to where the kerb actually drops, marking where the flush section starts and ends.

Sample appeal wording

formal

Replace [PARKING DATE], [NtK DATE] etc. with your own dates before sending.

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