Paint job: Croydon Council has this week reduced the extended and unlawful yellow box outside an access road to a private building – No1 Croydon – and replaced it with a ‘Keep Clear’ signage which does not carry a £160 fine
One month after Inside Croydon reported how a yellow box trap outside East Croydon Station was generating hundreds of thousands of pounds in unfair fines, the council has – probably reluctantly – painted over the offending road markings. JEREMY CLACKSON reports
For an unashamedly and self-confessed “pro-cars” Mayor, Jason “Porkie Pie” Perry has been milking motorists for every possible penny in the fines he has levied during his four years in charge of the Town Hall.
And repeatedly, at the High Court and the London Tribunal, Perry and his council have been judged to be in the wrong.
The latest Perry U-turn over his unfair £160-a-time fines has seen council workers this week painting over the dodgy bit of the yellow box that confronts drivers as they try to negotiate the exit from East Croydon Station past landmark building No1 Croydon.
“Yellow Box Guru” Sam Wright has helped motorists successfully appeal against traffic fines imposed by Croydon Council after they have driven into an unnecessarily enlarged, and arguably illegal, yellow box exiting Billinton Hill to turn left into Addiscombe Road.
Motorists caught in the yellow box have repeatedly established on appeal that Croydon Council’s roads department has been too keen in using their cans of bright yellow paint.
“Guru” Wright has successfully proved that the council’s 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.
Croydon’s failed Mayor Perry is already having to find up to £10million in refunds for fines levied on motorists driving in his unlawful LTNs following a humiliating defeat in the High Court last month.
Estimates suggest there could be another £2million-worth of fine refunds due for drivers caught in the East Croydon yellow box trap.
‘Disproportionately large’: how the hatched yellow box outside the access road for No1 Croydon looked until this week. The extended box did not meet legal requirements
The Highway Code, says that 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).
The extended yellow box was introduced by Croydon Council in 2017, and a sneaky ANPR camera – automatic number plate recognition – has been racking up the hefty fines ever since.
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”. 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.
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”.
Following Perry’s embarrassing defeat in the High Court over his unlawful LTNs, in an unscientific survey of Inside Croydon readers, 86% said that the Tory Mayor should resign.
How to claim an LTN refund from Croydon Council
- If you think you might be owed a refund on an LTN fine you were charged for in one of the six unlawful LTNs, between March 2024 and March 2026, this is the link to the council’s refund form: https://www.croydon.gov.uk/parking/croydon-low-traffic-neighbourhoods-ltns-penalty-refund-request
Perry’s latest U-turn over motoring fines places him at odds with his election campaign literature, which claims that he is on the side of motorists, and promises to rip out the borough’s safer streets outside schools and 20mph zones.
Last month, following more adverse press coverage for Mayor Perry, the council’s highways department conceded that it would “review” its dodgy box at East Croydon. It’s taken them a month to finally do the decent thing and remove the extended yellow box, replacing with “Keep Clear” signage on the road. Motorists who enter “Keep Clear” areas are not subject to PCN fines.
The council’s propaganda department did its usuall dissembling job on behalf of their witless Mayor. They claimed to have “listened to… feedback”. London Tribunal rulings have been referring to previous rulings to refund drivers going back four years – to when Mayor Perry took charge of the Town Hall.
The council falsely claims that, “the yellow box was installed decades ago”. In fact, 2017 is a decade ago (singular), another sign that Perry is trying to mislead over his part in this farrago.
And while Croydon Council holds records of every single fine it has issued at the unlawful yellow box at East Croydon, the authority will not be contacting motorists who paid fines on a false premise.
“Motorists can contact the council’s highways and parking team if they have queries or concerns re this box junction, and we will review each query on a case-by-case basis.”
The council failed to state just how the residents it is supposed to serve might submit such a claim. It’s almost as if they don’t want people to do so..
- In case you wish to pursue an historic East Croydon yellow box fine, Inside Croydon recommends that you write to Mayor Jason Perry himself, at mayor@croydon.gov.uk, including all the necessary details, such as date of the PCN, reference number and your full contact details. But hurry, there’s just a week until the local elections, and Jason Perry, the self-proclaimed “motorists’ friend”, might not be at the Town Hall after May 8.
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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ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2026, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for an EIGHTH time in nine years, in Private Eye magazine’s annual round-up of civic cock-ups
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How many millions has this Buffoon Perry wasted in legal fees instead of reducing the debts incurred by the Council on his watch? Must be in the tens of millions of waste?
“Buffoon Perry” doesn’t have the same ring about it. ‘Blundering Boris’ worked for a buffoon like Boris Johnson, but nicknames beginning with a ‘P’ work better for Croydon’s failed mayor, hence there have been “Part-time Perry”, “Piss-Poor Perry”, and “Powerless Perry” (since a whole succession of ineffective government inspectors appeared) work better !