London council rakes in £750K from motorists stopping in ‘wrongly placed’ yellow box

Detailed summary

Nearly 12,000 motorists have been fined for stopping in a yellow box junction that has been ruled as too long

Greenwich Council has been criticised for handing out nearly £750,000 in fines for infringements at a yellow box junction that extends beyond what is legally required.

One motorist managed to have her £160 fine overturned after she appealed to an independent adjudicator which ruled the yellow box on Plumstead High Street “is not substantially compliant with the legislative procedures”.

However, Greenwich Council said the junction was helping keep the carriageway clear so emergency services could respond to incidents more quickly.

Sam Wright, a traffic campaigner known as the ‘Yellow Box Guru’, helped the woman through a six-month appeal process and criticised the South London authority for putting drivers through “such stress for minor victimless nonsense”.

The yellow box in question is at the junction of Plumstead High Street and Garibaldi Street. Yellow boxes are traffic management tools designed to prevent gridlock and keep intersections, roundabouts, or emergency vehicle exits clear.

Londoners can be fined £160 (reduced to £80 if paid within 14 days) if they’re caught on camera entering and stopping in a yellow box.

Mr Wright was made aware of this particular Plumstead yellow box after the motorist contacted him asking for help. She had been fined by the council and wanted to overturn it as she had only stopped in the box for three seconds.

They contested the fine but Greenwich Council rejected the appeal. Sam and the woman then escalated her case to London Tribunals, an independent body that deals with yellow box Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs).

The tribunal ruled that video evidence provided by them showed the box extends beyond the junction, the car stopped in the section beyond the far end of the junction, and “the box junction is not substantially compliant with the legislative procedures”.

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