‘Disproportionately large’: the hatched yellow box outside the access road for No1 Croydon has been imposed by Croydon Council but does not meet legal requirements
Jason Perry, Croydon’s failed Mayor who is already having to find up to £10million in refunds for fines levied on motorists driving in his unlawful LTNs, could now have to repay another £2million for drivers caught in a yellow box trap outside East Croydon Station.
“Yellow Box Guru” Sam Wright has helped motorists successfully appeal against £160 traffic fines imposed by Croydon Council after they have driven into a yellow box exiting Billinton Hill to turn into Addiscombe Road by the landmark No1 Croydon building.
The taxi rank and exit route from East Croydon Station car park, with vehicles darting across the tram tracks, has been an unresolved mess for decades, with lengthy queues often forming.
But motorists caught in the yellow box at the left turn into Addiscombe Road have repeatedly established on appeal that Croydon Council’s roads department has been too keen in using their cans of bright yellow paint in front of the access road for No1 Croydon.
The left turn is already problematic, as car drivers have to try to nudge their way out alongside three ranks of London buses exiting the bus station.
“Guru” Wright has successfully proved that the council’s perilous yellow box has made that left turn unnecessarily more difficult, with the London Tribunal, which considers appeals against Penalty Charge Notices and road fines, ordering the council to “issue a £160 refund without delay” after one recent case.
According to the Highway Code, yellow boxes at road junctions must not be entered by drivers unless their exit is clear, or if they are making a right turn (which is never the case at this location). Croydon Council’s use of a sneaky ANPR camera – automatic number plate recognition – has been racking up the hefty fines for almost 10 years.
According to a Freedom of Information request to the council, more than 26,000 fines have been issued, generating roughly £1.9million for the cash-strapped council.
While half the box is correctly positioned at a junction with a public road, appeal adjudicators have said the other half is not allowed because it is outside a private road.
Successful tribunal appeals against fines advised by Wright have concluded that the yellow box is “disproportionately large” and outside a private road. But London Tribunals have no powers to order the removal of Mayor Perry’s dodgy box, creating a costly merry-go-round of fines issued and then cancelled on appeal.
After social media posts and an article in Jason Perry’s newspaper of choice, The Daily Torygraph, the council’s highways department, which has presided over this civic con since 2017, has reluctantly conceded that it will “review” its dodgy box.
At one recent tribunal review, the adjudicator noted how a successful 2022 appeal ruling warned how the box “appears to extend for some distance in front of the driveway of a private building”.
Right and wrong: given how obvious this yellow box error appears to be, the competence of Croydon’s highways directors must be called into question. Either that, or this box extension has been deliberately malicious
Describing the box positioning as “wrong”, the adjudicator said that yellow boxes “cannot be placed anywhere”.
That London Tribunal is now referencing its own decisions from four years ago suggests that even under Perry, who likes to cast himself as the motorists’ friend, revenue-generating yellow boxes have remained in place.
Wright is a chartered engineer who spent 10 years specialising in the design of yellow boxes. He is now calling for the entire yellow box – a “pointless obstacle or a hurdle for traffic” – to be removed.
A member of staff from Perry’s propaganda department told the Torygraph: “We accept the adjudicator’s decision and have cancelled the motorist’s penalty charge notice. Our highways department will review the issues raised to fully understand the scale of the issue and its potential implications.”
Fully understand. Ha!
Read more: LTN fine refunds on the way – but Perry doesn’t yet know how
Read more: High Court judge orders end to Croydon’s ‘unlawful’ LTNs
Read more: Council failed to include High Court LTN case on risk register
Read more: Director admits £12m sums on ANPR fines don’t add up
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KEEP CLEAR markings could be used (cannot issue fines for these) but that might set a precedent for similar, busy, private driveways. As one would expect, the Adjudicator is correct as the box extends over the driveway of a private building and not a “road”. I’m rather surprised that Croydon persisted with what they must have known was an unlawful situation. Money pressures again?
The whole traffic system round No 1 Croydon (or the NLA Tower as some of us still call it) is problematic. There are just too many movements of cars, cycles, trams, buses and pedestrians in a small area to be easily accommodated.
More space could possibly be provided if some of the old Royal Mail site was used, or if the East Croydon station concourse was relocated slightly northwards (which might be consistent with current proposals to re-position the railway tracks there).
In the meantime I think the priority is for the buses exiting the bus station. Currently buses containing large numbers of passengers are delayed for several minutes even in off-peak time.
The top priority is for the trams.
It’s been there a lot longer then ten years. Oldest streetview image is 2009.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.3746634,-0.0911608,3a,75y,278.38h,72.82t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sFOTNxEhPaxqx8qdO86Q6Mg!2e0!5s20090701T000000!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D17.181904950754486%26panoid%3DFOTNxEhPaxqx8qdO86Q6Mg%26yaw%3D278.37849596927293!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDMxMS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
Good to be reminded how big the Royal Mail depot building was – now another example of town centre landbanking.
The January 2017 date is, it’s fair to assume, when ANPR cameras were installed.
So the yellow box was introduced by the Tories, who I think were in charge of Croydon Council btw 2006 and 2014 ?! Bearing in mind his tendency to lie and make mistakes, perhaps it WAS Perry who introduced it in approx 2009 ?
2009 is the the first streetview image. The whole area was remodelled for the trams nine or ten years earlier; someone may well have painted the yellow box there then because it seemed like a good idea and nobody’s bothered to check the legalities then or the next x times they repainted the road markings. These things tend to be cockups. As may well be the installation of an ANPR camera to enforce the lawful bit of the box without considering the unlawful bit.
Then again I may well be letting everyone off the hook for incompetance rather than trying to pull a quick and dirty fix to the councils finances.
By the way where is the camera situated, I can’t spot if on street view?
Soooo introduced incorrectly by that awful Labour administration… not Jason Perry
Perry’s had four years to put it right. There’s been tribunal decisions against the council since 2022 at least.
Yet piss-poor Perry has soooo done fuck all about it.
Piss-Poor may only get two votes in the Mayoral election – his own and Alice Knight’s ?! Nobody else is that daft !
I’m old enough to remember last week’s LTN scandal. Bit of a pattern emerging?
Yes. And they all trace back to the same council director.
Can he get anything right?
Another skyrocket council tax increase too!
Kick him out!
Two years ago a report on financial risks to Perry’s Cabinet said this:
“New box junction and bus lane Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR)
cameras not achieving income targets due to increased expected compliance”.
“To mitigate the risk in relation to Box Junctions the service continually looks for new locations where ANPR can be utilised taking into account areas where enforcement will improve traffic flow and reduce congestion. Feasibility studies will be undertaken to help identify these locations.”
Piss poor Perry pretends to be the motorists’ friend but all he cares about is money.
Dear god, what a badly drafted extract! ‘Income targets’ shows the scheme just about making money. But then they talk about ‘expected’ compliance which is the WHOLE POINT of the box junctions. BTW, I’m a massive fan of box junctions because, if enforced,. they penalise the worst, the most impatient and the least considerate drivers.
Repaint it, make it neon. If it keeps arseholes from getting in front of busses or trams what’s the problem? All cars except taxis should be banned from upper George Street, Cherry Orchard Road, Addiscombe Road and Billinton Hill. A personal set of four wheels doesn’t get you entitlement. Double the fines. It’s a death trap junction, for pedestrians and disabled too. Public transport only on that junction. Cars heading East could join Addiscombe Road at Lebanon Road or further down, or make Cherry Orchard Road junction left turn only for private cars.