London area where people are fined for using bus lane to get onto their drives (2024)

Romford residents keep getting fines for parking on their own driveway.

It’s got so bad, a terminally ill woman, who has since died, had to walk to a nearby car park for a lift to hospital for cancer treatment, according to Aftab Mahboob.

He’s spent a year challenging a Penalty Charge Notices (PCN) issued after he parked outside his home last June.

Usually that would be fine, if it wasn’t for the bus lane he has to drive along in order to access his property, which is next to a bus stop.

It took five attempts to successfully appeal the fine, which had escalated to £145.

Mr Mahboob said: ‘It was a year of my life. It’s the inhuman side that I’m really bothered about. It’s a big deal. There are a few of us who get the tickets.

‘It’s quite important to sort it out – otherwise we would get parking tickets every time we parked on our own drives.

‘I turn into my drive 30 metres from where I started to pull in. Havering Council were nothing but aggressive. They kept sending me letters asking if I knew about the Highway Code. It felt patronising.’

It turns out Mr Mahboob was actually allowed to park this way all along.

When the fine was eventually overturned, parking adjudicator John Lane said: ‘The appellant stated that he was gaining access to his house or the entrance next to it that he rents.

‘The local authority’s Traffic Management Order creates an exemption to do so.’

Havering Council blamed the initial decision on a ‘difference of opinion’ by one of its officers and Mr Lane.

A spokesperson said: ‘Our officer had to make a judgement as to what was a reasonable length of bus lane to use.

‘The adjudicator has ruled in favour of the resident and the council respects this outcome.’

But this isn’t enough to quell Mr Mahboob’s disgust at the ‘immoral’ way he and his neighbours have been treated by the council, who he believes owes an apology.

He said: ‘This is really wrong. I got a fine for parking on my own drive. I’ve lived here 16 years but the camera has just been put up.

‘My father’s a bus driver so I have massive respect for them. We all want to get by, but this is just a money-making scheme.

‘We are law-abiding citizens and that camera is deliberately put there; it’s perfectly placed and people don’t have the time to fight the fines.

‘People are probably just paying fines because they’re scared of the repercussions.

‘Every time I wrote a letter it took me a week to write because I was working in the day. People don’t have that time and the council know that.

‘My neighbour’s sister – 84 years old – got a fine from the same camera.

‘She was too scared to get another fine and would park in a car park nearby [after receiving the fine] and have to walk her sister to her car for her cancer treatment.

‘The sister had to make her walk to the car park. You should be able to pick up a frail old woman. When you’re old and in chemotherapy you shouldn’t have to do that.

‘But after getting the first fine she wouldn’t park there again. Her sister had to spend the last six months of her life having to walk to the car instead of getting picked up outside her home.

‘She never got to see the end of this fine, but she would have been really happy about it.

‘Another neighbour, an NHS dentist, also got a fine. I believe both of their fines were for driving in the bus lane as well.

‘There are people doing 90mph on the same road, but they’re bothered about us parking on my own driveway.

‘I’ve heard nothing back from the council. Not even a “Sorry for your time”. They don’t really care. I find it quite disgusting, to be honest. It’s quite immoral.’

A council spokesperson said: ‘The Council always looks to carry out any parking and traffic enforcement in a fair and balanced way.

‘This is to help our roads be as safe as possible to use and to keep traffic moving.

‘Enforcement acts as a deterrent to those whose actions could be dangerous or illegal.’

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