If you get a speeding ticket .....

[Hazell B]

.... check you were actually in a 30mph zone ;)

A couple of months ago the farmer who's land boarders mine found a large strip of plastic half burried on the roadside edge of his land within his field, so he pulled it out and left it by the verge rather than plough it in. The next day it was gone. Two days later a planning notice in the local paper showed the 30mph limit for the village was being lengthened by 149 yards.

Adding two and two together, he realised he'd inadvertently removed the new 30 limit sign base. But it was okay, the council men had simply placed it a hundred yards or more further along the verge, outside my land.

So the first 100 or so yards of the 30mph zone isn't really legal. Nor would a speeding ticket be if issued in that grey area :eek:

It's made me wonder how many 30 limit signs aren't were they should be thanks to roadside errors meaning signs just can't be where they should be.

[schmenke]

Not sure I quite understand here...? What exactly was the purpose of the strip of plastic that the farmer found?

[Lousada]

So the first 100 or so yards of the 30mph zone isn't really legal. Nor would a speeding ticket be if issued in that grey area :eek:



I don't understand this? How can it be illigal?

[J4MIE]

...or indeed check you were driving where the offence took place!

about two years ago, when my mum's saxo was still alive, my mum and dad went on holiday with my brother in my dad's car to France for a few weeks.

It was a bit of a shock, then, to find a speeding ticket when they got home! They wrote back stating the facts and that it couldn't possibly have been them. They got a reply apologising and saying they had made a mistake :eek:

Thing is, it was at the newbridge roundabout near edinburgh. As I'm sure Iain will agree, it's only tourists and idiots who get done there as everyone knows about it and slows down.

If I had borrowed the car to go and visit my brother in Edinburgh, I'd probably have accepted (albeit somewhat reluctantly) that I'd been caught out and would have paid up and taken the points!!! :hmph:

[Hazell B]

I don't understand this? How can it be illigal?

As I said, it's signed as a 30 limit over 100 yards before it actually is a 30 limit, complete with flashing SLOW DOWN signs, the usual 30 signs and painted road markings - while the council's records show the limit starts at another point. They just put everything in the wrong place due to not having space where it should be.

That way, if you're clocked outside the legally applied for area but still after the signs, are you breaking a law really? I don't think so.

The areas have to be council approved and Highways approved, to stop just random people making signs and inventing their own limits in the hope the police will think they're real and use them for cameras.

Schmenke, the plastic was the base for the 30 sign. They've used four foot wide strip signs that slot into a plastic base (like bristles in a brush) and only the plastic is fixed to the land. They're new, so the farmer didn't know what they were.

[Brown, Jon Brow]

If you get a parking ticket for parking on double yellows, make sure that the line is solid all they way along, has a T bar at the end http://www.gateshead.gov.uk/images/Transport/doubleyellows.gif

and hasn't been painted around your car. :laugh:

[jim mcglinchey]

Can anyone answer this. If a bike cop with a hand held radar sees you do say 35 in a 30 zone but doesnt stop you, is that the end of the storey or can you still be fined?

[Mark]

If you get a parking ticket for parking on double yellows, make sure that the line is solid all they way along, has a T bar at the end http://www.gateshead.gov.uk/images/Transport/doubleyellows.gif

and hasn't been painted around your car. :laugh:

Yep, there is a shop I go to which has yellow lines painted outside but half of them are worn away and there is no end bar, completely unenforceable!



Can anyone answer this. If a bike cop with a hand held radar sees you do say 35 in a 30 zone but doesnt stop you, is that the end of the storey or can you still be fined?

Normally in those cases he would have to stop you there and then. Otherwise he would have to take your picture to use as evidence.

[D-Type]

Careful! You can only contest a parking ticket by going to court in person and it will probably cost you more in lost earnings.
I got done on a red line where I had a very good defence - the old white parking bay markings were still there and the signs were badly placed, etc.
So, I wrote to the court saying "I cannot afford to take a day of work to come and plead 'Not Guilty', I am therefore pleading 'Guilty' and wish to state the following mitigating circumstances ..."

The result? the original £30 fine was upheld and I was hit for another £30 court costs. So it cost me double.


Some years ago, my uncle was done for speeding. It was on a downhill stretchimmediately before the de-resricted sign. Being a solicitor, it cost him nothing to contest it and he got off. But, in those days you had to renew your driving licence periodically and they found that his was out of date. They threw the book at him.