• Greenwich Council saw a 100% success rate in driver appeals for over a year.
• They cited “no evidence” and didn’t contest appeals from July 2022 to September 2023.
• Staff shortages were blamed for their inability to provide evidence.

For over a year, drivers appealing penalty notices in a London borough enjoyed a 100% success rate, according to the resources.

During the period from July 2022 to September of this year, Greenwich Council refrained from contesting any appeals, consistently citing “no evidence.”

In such cases, adjudicators were obliged to dismiss the penalty charges in favor of the drivers.

Greenwich Council attributed its inability to provide evidence during that time to staff shortages.

The revelation followed a successful challenge to a penalty charge by the person reporting the story.

The council has since addressed the staff shortage issue and resumed submitting evidence to the appeals tribunal this month.

Compared to other London borough councils, Transport for London (TfL), and the collective organization London Councils, where 48% of appeals were successful, Greenwich Council’s 0% success rate raised eyebrows.

Over the past year, this coalition successfully defended itself against 17,188 out of 33,153 appeals handled by London Tribunals.

The individual who uncovered Greenwich Council’s 0% success rate did so after receiving a £130 penalty charge notice in June for driving in a Kidbrooke bus lane, firmly believing they were not at fault.

Unfamiliar with the area, they were following their sat-nav’s left-turn instructions. To their shock, they encountered a “bus lane” sign appearing beneath the bus ahead and vanishing beneath their front wheels before they could react.

Upon revisiting the bus lane, they discovered it lacked markings and advanced warning signage, both prerequisites for indicating the start of a bus lane.

Curiosity led them to investigate whether others had appealed over this same lane, leading to the discovery that not only had other appeals been successful, but Greenwich Council had not contested any appeal since July 28, 2022.

Despite saving £130, the individual felt a sense of missed opportunity in not being able to present their case in court to challenge the fairness of their penalty notice.

They also suspected that there might be others in Greenwich who had evaded traffic violation penalties.

A spokesperson for the Royal Borough of Greenwich said: “It is correct to say that for a period, due to staff shortage, we were unable to compile and submit evidence packs to the tribunal service in the required timeframe.”

The south-east London council’s spokesman said that a recent round of recruitment had resolved this issue, adding: “We can confirm we now have two officers working full time on tribunal appeals and have contested every appeal received in October.”

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