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#Post#: 96394--------------------------------------------------
Re: Enforceable restriction sign(s)
By: roythebus Date: October 31, 2025, 8:50 pm
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In the 1980s the whole of the GLC area was a no parking
overnight for lorries and buses. I don't know when that
restriction was rescinded if indeed it has been.
#Post#: 96462--------------------------------------------------
Re: Enforceable restriction sign(s)
By: Bustagate Date: November 1, 2025, 1:47 pm
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It appears that West Sussex are part of a trend. I found reports
about bans in the following areas:
[list]
[li]North Yorkshire
HTML https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwyg74k0z3ko[/li]
[li]Lytham St Annes
HTML https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cw4y8nv42xwo[/li]
[li]Felixstowe
HTML https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx27347l2z5o[/li]
[/list]
As this is a long post, I'll set out the conclusions for motor
caravanners here: unless the local authority has changed since
2012 (e.g. Northamptonshire has split and Surrey is about to),
these signs are valid.
On 5th March 2012, DfT issued special authorisations to 152
local authorities
HTML https://dft.gov.uk/traffic-auths/?search=third+edition
for a
package of signs "Traffic signs policy review area-wide
authorisation third edition". This package included a yellow
plate sign specifying times of parking restrictions for motor
caravans.
The special authorisations have no end date and apply throughout
the specified authority. As a result, the authority can install
the yellow "Motor caravan parking" signs wherever they like
within the authority's area. The signs which they place are
lawful and the local authority can enforce PCNs for contravening
them.
The rest of this post explains how I discovered this.
North Yorkshire
In North Yorkshire it turns out that there was a ban in three
areas from 2012 to 2015. This was allowed to lapse and has now
been reimposed. I found this in a document which Google turned
up: 2024 report to North Yorkshire Council
HTML https://edemocracy.northyorks.gov.uk/documents/s37531/Proposed%20experimental%20traffic%20regulation%20order%20ETRO_Final%20Version.pdf.<br
/>Appendix A to this is a copy of a report from 2015 seeking to
make permanent the earlier Temporary TRO.
I set out below the section of the 2015 report which shows that
the need for authorised traffic signs was recognised, and that
the local MP solved the problem by contacting DfT. I have
emboldened the most relevant text, but have left the rest as it
shows the context.
[quote]
2.5 Prior to April 2011 Scarborough Borough Council held
responsibility for the publicly maintainable highway in the
Scarborough Town area, as agents to the County Council, and
attempted in a committee report in 2009 to ameliorate issues
with motor-caravans in various “honeypot” locations in the town.
2.6 The report contained various measures for on-street parking
and also measures involving the restriction of motor-caravans
from its off-street car parking facilities (which the borough
council remains responsible for) and was presented to its
committee on 15 May 2009. The recommendations of the report were
agreed and implemented by the Borough Council.
2.7 Part of the result of the 2009 committee report was the
erectiօn of “no overnight camping” signs at various
affected on-street locations in Scarborough Town.
2.8 The Borough Council 2009 report identified that there was no
legislation or signage available, that allowed any enforceable
restriction on a specific category of vehicle at a location,
unless Department for Transport approval was sought and granted.
Although it was intended, there is no record of this approval
being sought or granted. Consequently the “no overnight camping”
signs were unenforceable. Furthermore these signs are now
superseded by a more appropriate new traffic sign which was
authorised by the Department for Transport on 5 March 2012,
described below.
2.9 Other examples of historic unenforceable signage, concerning
the prohibition of camping, have also been identified in the
last couple of years, at locations which have always been under
immediate County Council jurisdiction in the wider borough.
2.10 During 2014 all unenforceable signage that had been
identified was removed from all locations across the borough by
North Yorkshire County Council, following complaints by
individuals from the motor-caravanning community. Nevertheless
the existence of such signage demonstrates the long-standing
problems surrounding the practice and several recent complaints
have been received from residents since the signs have been
removed.
2.11 In 2012 the constituency MP Robert Goodwill raised the
problems associated with the overnight on-street parking of
motor-caravans, on behalf of residents, with the Department for
Transport. A letter was received by him, in reply, from MP
Norman Baker, the minister responsible for the issue at that
time.
2.12 A copy of the letter was subsequently shared with North
Yorkshire County Council for information. The letter informed
that on 5 March 2012 the Department for Transport had issued an
authorisation of traffic signs and special directions
(GT50/113/0008) in respect of appropriate sites on roads for
which the Council is the traffic authority, accompanied by a set
of drawings (GT50/113/0008-1) of signs, one of which (authorised
sign R) specifically shows a prohibition on the waiting of motor
caravans during specified hours.
2.13 The definition of motor-caravans used is the EU definition
as follows:
A “Motor Caravan” is a vehicle of Category M: (Motor vehicles
with at least four wheels designed and constructed for the
carriage of passengers.) with living accommodation space which
contains the following equipment as a minimum:
(a) seats and table;
(b) sleeping accommodation which may be converted from the
seats;
(c) cooking facilities;
(d) storage facilities
The definition is contained within European Directive
2007/46/EC.
2.14 Following the approval of the signage, on 28 June 2012, the
County Council applied a temporary order to prohibit overnight
parking of motor-caravans between 11pm and 7am, utilising the
above-described prescribed signage, and EU definition, to the
affected streets, listed in paragraph 2.4. except The Parade
Sandsend, which was not included in the temporary orders.
[/quote]
I searched DfT Traffic Authorisations
HTML https://dft.gov.uk/traffic-auths/
for "North Yorkshire"
HTML https://dft.gov.uk/traffic-auths/?search=North+Yorkshire
but
couldn't find anything which looked likely. A Google search for
"department transport authorisation GT50/113/0008" found it: it
was listed under Traffic signs policy review area-wide
authorisation third edition
HTML https://assets.dft.gov.uk/trafficauths/case-3330.pdf.
It's
authorised sign R on page 7.
Technicalities: Yellow Lines/Parking Bays or CPZ?
Among the conditions imposed was this:
[quote]
The provisions of Regulations 12, 18 and 19 of the 2002
Regulations shall apply to the Authorised Sign R in the same
manner as they apply to the sign shown in diagram 640.2A in
Schedule 2 to those regulations[/quote]
That indicates that the sign was regarded as based on diagram
640.2A. This was the yellow plate sign "Waiting by goods
vehicles over maximum gross weight shown prohibited during the
periods and in the direction indicated". That sign was used,
without accompanying single yellow lines, in a Controlled
Parking Zone (CPZ) applying to goods vehicles over maximum gross
weight shown. The entry sign to such a CPZ was diagram 665 and
the exit sign 666 (all in TSRGD 2002 Schedule 2)
HTML https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/3113/schedule/2/made.
The yellow plate sign 640.2 and the entry sign to the CPZ
diagram 665 have been superseded by the "build it yourself"
system in TSRGD 2016 Schedule 4
HTML https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2016/362/schedule/4/made.<br
/>Diagram 666 remains as TSRGD 2016 Schedule 7 Part 2
HTML https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2016/362/schedule/7/part/2/made<br
/>Item 2.
I found Google Street View imagery from 2014 for Royal Albert
Drive, Scarborough
HTML https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@54.2898456,-0.4024931,3a,90y,233.93h,77.37t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sb4aBGYdPeA8CUnUY-2kZXQ!2e0!5s20141001T000000!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D12.630378064593472%26panoid%3Db4aBGYdPeA8CUnUY-2kZXQ%26yaw%3D233.92624070848527!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MTAyOS4yIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D.<br
/>There are parking bays and a white plate advising of parking
restrictions. That being so, it made sense to regard the yellow
plate for motor caravan restrictions as being essentially the
same as an ordinary yellow plate which accompanies single yellow
lines.
Other Local Authorities
I checked DfT Traffic Authorisations for the other counties
listed and found authorisations for the same package "Traffic
signs policy review area-wide authorisation third edition" as
for North Yorkshire. I could not find anything for Lancashire.
That's because the Traffic Authorisations search is a bit flaky:
the first thing you learn is that it's case-sensitive, but
that's not all. The failure to get a hit doesn't mean there
isn't something.
Having found special authorisations for the same package for 3
of the 4 local authorities, I searched for "third edition" and
got 152 hits, which looked like all local authorities in England
at the time. These included Lancashire, so I tried searching
again for that, and found the special authorisation.
A comment about West Sussex: on Mill Road, Arundel, there are no
yellow lines or parking bays. I think it's distinctly dodgy to
be putting up those yellow plates without either a single yellow
line (which is omitted if parking bays are marked) or entry and
exit signs for a motor caravan CPZ. The latter would require
special authorisation.
Comment for the Traffic Signs Community
I'm disturbed that DfT rolled out what should have been a
statutory instrument amending TSRGD 2002 as 152 special
authorisations and that it then didn't take advantage of a new
edition of TSRGD to incorporate the changes into a statutory
instrument. Talk about brushing things under the carpet ... and
keeping them there.
#Post#: 96555--------------------------------------------------
Re: Enforceable restriction sign(s)
By: Bustagate Date: November 2, 2025, 2:17 pm
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Traffic Signs Policy Review 2011
In October 2011, DfT published Traffic signs policy paper:
signing the way
HTML https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a79e099e5274a18ba50f777/signing-the-way.pdf.<br
/>Reporting that The Traffic Signs (Amendment) Regulations and
General Directions 2011
HTML https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2011/1040/contents/made<br
/>would reduce by 40% the number of special authorisations local
authorities had to seek, it went on to say that the Department
had further reduced the burden by issuing local authorities with
authorisations.
These were two sets of special authorisations which were issued
to each local authority individually (the links are to the
authorisations to Lancashire County Council):
[list]
[li]17 November 2011: Traffic Signs Policy Review Area-wide
Authorisation
HTML http://assets.dft.gov.uk/trafficauths/case-2702.pdf[/li]
[li]17 November 2011: Traffic Signs Policy Review Area-Wide
Special Direction
HTML http://assets.dft.gov.uk/trafficauths/case-2859.pdf[/li]
[/list]
It was as though the Department had realised that it should have
put more signs in the Amendment Regulations, but didn't want to
make them as a further set of Amendment Regulations. Instead it
issued them to all authorities as special authorisations which
they hadn't asked for.
The Department repeated this process three times in 2012:
[list]
[li]17 February 2012: Traffic signs policy review area-wide
authorisation second edition (trixi mirrors)
HTML http://assets.dft.gov.uk/trafficauths/case-3112.pdf[/li]
[li]5 March 2012: Traffic signs policy review area-wide
authorisation third edition
HTML http://assets.dft.gov.uk/trafficauths/case-3284.pdf[/li]
[li]1 October 2012: National authorisation for portable traffic
signals (area-wide)
HTML http://assets.dft.gov.uk/trafficauths/case-3604.pdf[/li]
[/list]
As foreshadowed in the Policy Paper, the Department was working
on a substantial revamp of the Traffic Signs Regulations, which
it issued as TSRGD 2016.
This process is relevant today because some of the signs in
these special authorisations were not included in TSRGD 2016 and
so, when the sign is used today, it is under a special
authorisation from 2011-12. An example is the yellow plate
waiting restriction on motor caravans. It appears that this sign
got into the special authorisation because the MP for
Scarborough and Whitby, Robert Goodwill, wrote to DfT in early
2012 asking them to do something to make parking restrictions on
motor caravans enforceable.
The Department appears to have issued special authorisations to
all local authorities on one further occasion:
[list]
[li]14 December 2023: Small Wild Animals Warning Sign,
Area-wide. (squirrels, badgers, otters, hedgehogs)
HTML http://assets.dft.gov.uk/trafficauths/case-4643.pdf[/li]
[/list]
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