Out of towners ‘falling for traffic trap’
Claim council are ‘misleading’ drivers to generate revenue
Friday, 3rd July — By Finn Logue
Joel Meadows
ISLINGTON Council are “misleading” people who are not from the borough to generate revenue through tricky traffic rules, a man engaged in a legal battle with the Town Hall has claimed.
Joel Meadows said he was returning from an art fair in his car when he drove down Benwell Road in Highbury – part of the council’s Low Traffic Neighbourhoods map. He was hit with a notice for £80, which has since risen to £240 after an appeal process was rejected.
Mr Meadows insists there are “no obvious signs” at the entrance to the road informing drivers that cars cannot go down the road, and that the camera warning is only found two thirds of the way down.
He said: “If I’d seen a clear and obvious sign at the entrance to the road, obviously I wouldn’t have driven down it. I think it has done the borough a disservice, having a sort of cavalier parking charge that we now have to pay just because the signage wasn’t good enough.
“I don’t live in the borough. I don’t know the roads. It’s clearly a revenue generating scheme deliberately designed to catch unwitting motorists who aren’t from here.”
Benwell Road
Mr Meadows has now been summoned to court after his correspondence with the council, which he said has been “unprofessional and inappropriate.”
He said that he feels he has been “harassed” by Islington Council, adding: “I’m a freelancer, and I now have to spend a day in court in Northampton, which is miles away. I will be invoicing them my day rate for the waste of time.”
The Town Hall’s environment chief, Cllr Rowena Champion, said: “We advertise all traffic restrictions clearly and in line with legal requirements, and carefully consider any appeal that is launched. Any surplus revenue that is collected from these traffic restrictions is reinvested in transport concessions such as the Freedom pass, and improved public spaces and highways, including road maintenance and repairs.
“By reducing cut-through traffic – to create safer streets with lower speeds and lower road danger – we’re helping to ensure that Islington’s neighbourhoods are community spaces that everyone can enjoy, contributing to a safer and healthier borough for all.”
