Labour council unfairly fines more than 350 motorists during road works
1/18/2025, 3:00:00 PM
A Labour council “ripped off” more than 350 motorists it fined for entering a yellow box despite the road markings “serving no purpose whatsoever”. Newham council banked £23,000 from penalty charge notices (PCNs) issued at the same spot during a month of roadworks when a test case fine “should not have been issued”. Ricardo Bowden received a PCN after entering the yellow box on Barking Road in east London where cones had been laid out while the road was being dug up in April and May last year. After the council rejected his appeal, the 49-year-old motability electric car driver took his case to London Tribunals. Eventually, Newham conceded: “The PCN should not have been issued due to roadworks blocking the turn for which the box junction was installed.” In a scathing costs ruling, the tribunal adjudicators agreed that “at the material time the box markings served no purpose whatsoever and did not fulfil its statutory purpose” before concluding the local authority was twice “wholly unreasonable” in its handling of the case. The tribunal ordered town hall bosses to pay Mr Bowden’s legal costs. Mr Bowden, along with Ivan Murray-Smith, his advocate, then submitted a freedom of information request that...