New powers granted to local authorities concerning yellow box junctions could lead to an avalanche of fines…

An Avalanche of Fines?

From June 1st, local authorities throughout the country will receive new powers; allowing them to issue fines in order to enforce yellow box junctions. Up until now, the only authorities with the powers to do so have been those in Cardiff and London. Now fears have been expressed that the new powers could, effectively, be abused leading to an ‘avalanche’ of fines being issued. 

The RAC has noted that 57% of drivers agree with enforcing box junctions. However, it’s also noted that many of the junctions possess serious design flaws; causing some motorists to become stuck for no fault of their own. Moreover, some of them are so infrequently maintained that they can actually become difficult to see for some road-users.

In addition, the motoring organisation believes current guidance in Chapter 5 of the Traffic Signs Manual is ‘unsatisfactory’. It claims that it doesn’t clearly state the purpose of the box junctions; or how they should be designed in relation to the movement of vehicles. 

‘High Degree of Confusion’ 

Nicholas Lyes, the RAC’s head of roads policy, believes that rules concerning the box junctions are confusing. He explained, “in the absence of definitive guidance on the design, maintenance and enforcement of box junctions there will be a high degree of confusion among drivers and local authorities which could lead to an avalanche of penalty charge notices being wrongly issued and then having to be appealed. This will inevitably lead to an unnecessarily high number of appeals for local authorities to review, as well as some poor outcomes for drivers”.

He also expressed concerns that lessons hadn’t been learnt from experiences in London. He said, “we are worried that failing to update guidance to include the lessons learnt from more than 15 years of enforcement in London will lead to countless wrong fines being issued, no end of unnecessary stress for drivers who feel they have been unfairly treated and thousands of wasted council hours investigating appeals”. 

Nearly A Third Of Vans Fail Their MOTs Due To Brake Faults – https://autoservefleet.co.uk/latest-news/nearly-a-third-of-vans-fail-their-mots-due-to-brake-faults/

Highway Code Changes: 7 Million Drivers Are Unaware – https://autoserve.co.uk/motoring-news/highway-code-changes-7-million-drivers-are-unaware/

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