Have you been fined for parking in a diplomatic bay?

[Ian_W]

Five London councils may have to repay millions of pounds of parking fines to motorists after a BBC London investigation proved hundreds of their parking bays have been unlawfully operated for decades.

 

There are 346 diplomatic parking sites in the city, reserved for foreign embassy staff.

 

But because they are not "standard" bays, councils have to get permission from the secretary of state for transport before installing road signs.

 

Now Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, Camden, and Islington have all admitted they did not have proper permission from the government.

 

It means their signs did not comply with the law - and were technically classed as "illegal obstructions of the highway", according to the Town and Country Planning Act.

 

Every parking fine and car-towing carried out in these unauthorised bays since the 1970s is therefore unenforceable.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8490074.stm