Example Cases

Appellants sometimes say that they did not park "on" the yellow line, especially where the vehicle was parked on a wide verge. However, a parking restriction is not limited to the metalled carriageway itself but incorporates the width of the public highway from the centre of the carriageway to the building line of property or adjacent land. "Road" is defined in the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 as "... any length of highway or of any other road to which the public has access...".  While the Act does not define "Highway", at common law it is a way over which all members of the public have a right to pass and re-pass and therefore includes a footpath over which the public right of passage is on foot.

Parked on workplace property adjacent to the road (BN 416)
The appellant was issued with a PCN for being parked on a grass verge alongside a restricted section of road. In appealing on the ground that no contravention had taken place, he said that the vehicle was not parked on the road but on land belonging to his place of work, albeit outside the chain-link fence delineating the boundary of his workplace. The Adjudicator ruled that, regardless of who actually owned the land, it still formed part of the highway and the restriction applied. In any event, the photographic evidence showed that one wheel was actually on the carriageway.
The appeal was dismissed.

Public access makes private land public (BN 400)
Issued with a PCN for parking on a paved area alongside the Salvation Army hall, the appellant appealed on the ground that no contravention had occurred. The Adjudicator ruled that, while it was not disputed that the land belonged to the Salvation Army and was not adopted by the council, photographs showed that the adopted area and the Salvation Army land appeared as one continuous pavement, so that a pedestrian would have no reason to distinguish between any part of the area and would quite reasonably assume that there was public access to the entire width of paving. Thus, the Adjudicator found, the whole area was one to which the public had access, whether by right or tolerance, the location was thus one to which the bylaw applied and a contravention was established.
The appeal was dismissed.

Penalty issued where informal agreement existed (BN 384)
The appellant parked his motorcycle on the 5 metre-wide pavement immediately outside his shop and was issued with a PCN. He appealed on the ground that he was parked on privately-owned land and no contravention had occurred. At a personal hearing, the appellant explained that only the half of the pavement closest to the road was owned but the council, the rest belonging to the shops or demised to them under the terms of their lease. The Adjudicator found that there had for some time been an arrangement between local shop owners and Parking Attendants that PCNs would not be issued when they parked there. The council attended the hearing and confirmed that no further PCNs would be issued.
The appeal was allowed.

A road designated as a car park with inadequate signage (AL 44)
The appellant parked in a private road and was issued with a PCN for having "parked in a restricted area in a car park without displaying a permit". In appearance, the road was clearly not a car park but, with its tarmac carriageway and pavements and bounded by private houses, a church, a fire station, industrial premises and a doctors' surgery, had every appearance of an ordinary suburban street. The appellant appealed on the ground that the contravention had not taken place. The council said that the road was not, in fact, adopted but was owned by the adjacent properties. They had decided, following requests from the landowners, to include the road in a bylaw relating to off-street parking places, effectively designating it as a car park, use of which was restricted at all times to local permit holders.

The Adjudicator presumed that the council had employed this rather odd fiction in the belief that, being unadopted and privately owned, the road could not be regarded as part of the highway to which normal parking restrictions might be applied. However, no area within the road could be said to be restricted and the appellant would have had no idea when reading the PCN why it had been issued. The Adjudicator found the PCN to be defective and the signage to be inadequate and inconsistent with the terms of the bylaw, in that it failed to convey the nature of the restriction. He ruled that, as a road running between two definable points to which the public had unrestricted access, both on foot and in vehicles, it might properly fall within the definition of a highway, giving the council power to regulate parking, were there sufficient reason for doing so, in what might be considered the more usual way, using on-street signing with which any driver would be familiar.
The appeal was allowed.