law on parking near double yellow lines!

[mswain]

I was parked on a strip of waste ground four metres away from the roadside (double yellow lines) there was no signs saying no parking, yet I was issued one and told by the Traffic warden the doyble yellow lines restricts parking up to the boundry of the nearest fence,in my case the pavement, four metre strip of waste ground to the hedge row. is this valid? Mike Swain from Birmingham.

[themas]

It sounds very odd to me! Who does the waste ground belong to? If it is not the local authority then your parking there has nothing to do with them and the traffic warden is clearly in the wrong.

If the land is owned by the local authority then the situation may be different - hopefully someone else will be able to tell you.

[Loosehead]

Not sure what you mean by "waste ground". Yellow lines apply to both side of the kerb so if the ground you are talking about was adjacent to the kerb or road edge then the Warden is correct. Note that double yellow lines mean no parking at any time and do not need a sign.

[Buenchico]

The 'traffic warden' (who, these days, is more likely to be a 'parking enforcement officer' employed by the council) is correct.

A similar situation happened in Sheffield where SWFC supported had regularly parked 'inside' double yellow lines on Herries Road South for many years. That was until the day that the police decided to enforce the regulations and around 100 drivers found that their cars had been 'ticketed'. There was a a great deal of fuss made about it (with substantial coverage in the local media) but the police wouldn't back down and the drivers had to pay up.

Chris