‘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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