Quick traffic offence question

Currently reading:
Quick traffic offence question

bredsticz

I like to be different!
Joined
Jul 12, 2009
Messages
4,491
Points
838
Location
Manchester
Hi all, parked up outside heaton park on bonfire night. Was very busy due to firework display so I parked on the central reservation on a duel carriage way.
When I came back i saw ticket on the car and expected it to be a normal £60 don't park here.

The ticket said traffic offense, looking at fine and points on licence :S
I didn't think they could give points for parking somewhere.
Got letter from police that says it was for causing unneccessary obstruction. I fail to see why its an obstruction. 4 other cars were parked with me and all got the same.

There is no yellow lines and nothing I was obstructing as it isn't a footpath.
Attached a picture of where it was
 

Attachments

  • heaton p.JPG
    heaton p.JPG
    111.5 KB · Views: 184
take it to court, ask who you was obstructing
was necessary to park there or just couldn't be bothered to walk from a normal parking place? if there was no other parking in a reasonable distance argue that it was also necessary to park there.

Its very hard finding another space on that night. Don't I have to pay court fees if I lose though?
 
You say the ticket says Unnecessary Obstruction, but that tends not to be endorsable. It normally carries the same penalty as a Police parking ticket. Is there an Offence Code on the ticket? If there is, this should be "320".

Were you actually parked on the central reservation or on the stretch of road which is (probably) between two separate parts of the reservation?

There are actually Double Yellow Lines on the road, they are on each side adjacent to the kerb. They apply from Boundary Line to Boundary Line, which in this case is from the park railings to the property on the opposite side which is probably Sainsburys (from memory).

If you were parked between the parts of the central reservation then it must be an access to allow vehicles to either cross the road from a property on one side or the other or to carry out a U-Turn.

I've no knowledge of that offence carrying points.

The current practice of GMP is to issue what is known as a Traffic Offence Report, rather than the old Fixed Penalty Notice. This is to allow you to be offered a course, although for non-endorsable offence this wouldn't apply.

If you can scan the ticket onto here (obviously removing personal details) that would help
 
Yes its that junction.

If you were on that central reservation then you were obstructing the view of vehicles coming from Middleton and turning right, the vehicles coming from the other direction would not have had an adequate view because you were obstructing it. Also possibly obstructing the warning signs when coming from Middleton.

Blocking the view when parked on the brow of a hill, IMO you are lucky you were not towed away too.

Its a reservation, reserved space - not a parking space.

Just in case someone took photographs - maybe best to keep an eye on yplac :)
 
Last edited:
Unnecessary obstruction doesn't usually include blocking someone else's view, but their passage. Er......

Anyway, before this turns into a dissertation on laxatives, if you park your vehicle in a position so that it obstructs a pedestrian eg on the pavement, or across a dropped kerb then that would be a non-endorsable offence. In this case it's more likely that if you parked between the two parts of the central reservation then the obstruction would occur as drivers trying to turn into or out of the Three Arrows couldn't do so, or at least do so safely

On the other hand, the offence could be Dangerous Positioning, which is endorsable and could constitute the aforementioned restriction of vision or could include parking on a bend, roundabout or hump-backed bridge.

Generally speaking though, Police forces are tending towards offering a variety of re-training courses although this isn't available for non-endorsables.
 
take it to court, ask who you was obstructing
was necessary to park there or just couldn't be bothered to walk from a normal parking place? if there was no other parking in a reasonable distance argue that it was also necessary to park there.
If there is no other parking place then, tough, it's up to the driver to go and find one. Only a defence that your Granny lived there and had just been given the Last Rites might elicit some form of sympathetic response. Otherwise it's up to the driver to go as far as is necessary to find a parking space. Miles if needs be.

Oh, and by the way, Section 172 RTA tends to put the kaibosh on somebody else driving. Also bear in mind that a prison sentence that way lies.

so if who ever issued the ticket has put Unnecessary obstruction and said points will be added, will the ticket be issued wrong and so the op could get off on technicality?
FPN tickets are effectively pro-forma so it's just down to the Officer to fill in the blanks, ie, where, when, what etc. He/she doesn't decide whether the offence carries points or not, legislation does that so there is no procedural aspect to this and there is no technicality in this case. If Breadsticz could tell us what the Offence Code is that would help. If it's 320 as I mentioned earlier then there can't be any points.
 
Its very hard finding another space on that night. Don't I have to pay court fees if I lose though?
Yes but they won't be particularly high, probably around £60, which is actually the cost of the ticket in the first place.

You're a bit unlucky in one respect, the fine has recently gone up from £30 to £60, the first increase in about a decade.

Mind you, I can remember when they were £2. Eeee, them were t'days. Yer could go out for a night out wi' a couple of quid, buy a gallon of 4 star, 20 fags, two pints of Watney's Red Barrel and still have enough left over for a bag o' fish and chips.

And yer try tellin' the young people of today that and they don't believe yer.
 
Yes but they won't be particularly high, probably around £60, which is actually the cost of the ticket in the first place.

You're a bit unlucky in one respect, the fine has recently gone up from £30 to £60, the first increase in about a decade.

Mind you, I can remember when they were £2. Eeee, them were t'days. Yer could go out for a night out wi' a couple of quid, buy a gallon of 4 star, 20 fags, two pints of Watney's Red Barrel and still have enough left over for a bag o' fish and chips.

And yer try tellin' the young people of today that and they don't believe yer.


Your right :) i dont believe you :devil:
 
Tbh id just take it on the chin and learn from it.
perhaps try and show some reason as to why you parked there.

carnt find anywhere else to park wouidnt do
perhaps car overheated and stopped and you went to sainsburys down the brow for some water might look better ;)

your not aloud to park there obviously but what are the rules for breaking
down there :rolleyes:
 
You could of payed a fiver a bit further down. Done a right at the lights up the hill and there was loads of parking places in the car park. For the cost of a fiver. Knowing you won't get a fine and points?
 
Back
Top