The evidence did not establish usable warning before the width restriction (2026)

Case 2250291799 / 2025-10-14 / Adjudicator Chez Cotton

Charlton Road JW D'arcy Drive

“For these reasons I find the PCN has not been validly issued.”

Chez Cotton

Harrow issued the PCN after a vehicle towing a trailer passed through the central section at Charlton Road's junction with D'arcy Drive instead of using the left-hand gap. The driver said they had not seen advance width warnings and the trailer would not fit through the side section.

Chez Cotton accepted that the recording showed the passage through the central section. She also accepted that the restriction was clearly signed once a driver was at the location and that the authority had supplied a valid traffic management order. Those findings did not resolve whether the approach gave a driver an adequate opportunity to choose another route.

The authority's advance-warning photographs were too small to read, and enlarging them did not make the signs legible. On the evidence presented, the adjudicator could not establish that the warnings were visible to a reasonably competent motorist. She found that the restriction sign at the location was encountered too late to change course and allowed the appeal on 14 October 2025.

The decision did not create a general exemption for vehicles towing trailers or a universal rule about advance-warning signs. For a comparable dispute, identify the actual approach, the warning evidence and the last available alternative route. The refused case in this guide concerns the same junction but a different evidence pack, which showed advance warnings and an alternative turn.

Source and case reference

Use case reference 2250291799 in the London Tribunals register to find the official decision. This commentary distinguishes the adjudicator's finding from a possible argument in a different case; previous tribunal decisions do not bind another adjudicator.