Pressure mounts on council over 'illegal' fines

A spokesman for the council, Keith Ulyatt, has said there are no plans to change a system which may have seen tens of thousands of motorists wrongly fined already.
Now the shadow portfolio holder for highways and transport, Keith Woodhams (Lib Dem, Thatcham West), has challenged his ruling counterpart, Pamela Bale (Con, Pangbourne) over the issue.
This week’s Newbury Weekly News reports how fines issued for driving over Newbury’s Park Way bridge, , potentially totalling hundreds of thousands of pounds, may be invalid.
Nevertheless Mr Ulyatt said that, notwithstanding an official adjudicator’s ruling that warning signage was illegal: “There is no reason to change a system which is working well for public transport in the town.”
Now Mr Woodhams plans to raise the matter at a meeting of the council’s executive committee on March 27.
He has tabled a question to Mrs Bale asking: “In the light of the comments on the front page of the NWN - 'Penalty tribunal rules against bridge fines' - can the executive member for highways and transport tell me if she will heed the Traffic Penalty Tribunal’s findings and correct the signage on the approach to Park Way bridge or ignore their advice?”
Mr Woodhams also called on Mrs Bale to apologise to motorists who were fined in the light of comments made by her predecessor David betts (Con, Purley on Thames), reported below.
For years the council rejected repeated claims that Park Way bridge warning signs were inadequate and designed as a revenue generator.
The ruling Conservative administration hit back, blaming aggrieved motorists’ own “stupidity.”
But now a Traffic Penalty Tribunal has delivered a damning verdict against them, potentially exonerating countless drivers caught out by the system - at least, those who were travelling in one direction.
The bridge was turned into a bus, taxi and bicycle lane on November 4, 2011.
Within the first year alone, 6,080 motorists were fined for driving over it, equating to £170,000 in revenue for council coffers.
Mr Ulyatt said an additional, 3,900 people had been fined for driving in the bus lane - in either direction -since November 2012.
The tribunal adjudication came after Reading motorist Peter Jeffries was fined £60 on September 12 last year for exiting, from a car park, into the bus lane.
He appealed to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, complaining the signs were, indeed, inadequate.
The adjudicator upheld his appeal, cancelled the fine and ruled that the “alleged contravention did not occur” because the carriageway warning is sited so that drivers have already entered the forbidden area by the time they have seen it.
In addition the signs are “not adequately clear” and give “insufficient opportunity to understand where the restriction begins and how to avoid it.”
The ruling also notes there is no marking on the roundabout.
In 2012 Mr Betts blamed the “stupidity” of motorists, adding: “Some people just drive about with their eyes shut.”
Critics, he said, were “trying it on, thinking they will get away with it.”
Asked whether, in light of the adjudicator’s ruling, he would apologise to those motorists his comments had offended, he replied: “Absolutely not.”
Mr Betts declined to comment further, saying his views were “unprintable.”
However the current highways and transport portfolio holder, Pamela Bale (Con, Pangbourne) has so far not responded to repeated requests for a comment.
Mr Woodhams said: “This is just shocking...quite extraordinary. This Conservative administration has a history of complacency over poor signage and a relaxed attitude to fining people inappropriately.
“The whole things leads to a lack of public confidence in the system. We offered to arrange a free peer review of the system but the Conservatives voted us down.”
Pick up a copy of next week’s Newbury Weekly News for more on this issue.