Letter to Sunderland City Council Chief Executive 28th September 2007:

Ged Fitzgerald
Chief Executive
Sunderland City Council
Civic Centre
Sunderland
SR2 7DN

28th September 2007

Dear Mr. Fitzgerald,

As a matter of urgency I wish to bring the following to your attention and require a response as a matter of urgency:

The Loading Bays in Sea Road, Sunderland are unlawful and dangerous, with the markings placed on the highway by Sunderland City Council actually enticing drivers into illegal bays to commit a criminal offence.

• Loading Bays to Diagram 1028 series MUST be a minimum of 2.7m wide
• The 'Loading Only' legend MUST be on the outside of the bay.
• the zig zag restriction runs 'edgeback to edgeback' therefore the council are actually
• inciting motorists to commit a criminal offence by parking in the zigzags, behind the zig zags or overhanging the zig zags.

the serious safety issues arise from restricted visibility for motorists and pedestrians alike caused by vehicles parked in the unlawfully marked, illegal loading bay.

As well as the fundamental safety issue the fact is that these bays are not legal and therefore no-one can have been legally fined. The monies must be refunded as Sunderland City Council's accounts once again contain unlawfully derived income. This is not an instance where there is 'ambiguity' over the signing which a motorist can raise as a defence.This is not an instance where signs have been 'poorly maintained or vandalised.'

The e-mail from John Munns at the TM1 Division in the DfT in response to the photographs contained in the attached Sea Road Composite is also attached but an extract of his response to the specific question as to whether the bays shown in the attached photographs have special authorisation or comply with the legal requirements is shown below:

"The combination of these regulations is not always obvious but we now understand that the zig zag should always follow the kerb-line including into any bays . Loading bays minimum width in TSRGD is 2.7m - unless it conform entirely to diagram 1032 in TSRGD. The Signs regulations always have the "loading only" legend outside the bay - authorised exceptions are very , very, raree (sic).

If Councillor Lawson and the Cabinet continue to endorse what is clearly illegal (and this is not just an isolated instance ... the National Parking Adjudication Service, the DfT are sitting on thousands of pages of evidence and you have also been supplied with a copy of an expert witnesses' report on Sunderland from Richard Bentley a former Police Officer and accredited independent expert witness) then I wish this to be placed on the record and in the public domain so that Sunderland City Council Officers and elected members cannot claim that they didn't know, should a serious accident occur.

As for the continued claim that the regime is 'legal'robust and enforceable' on Sunday morning 23rd September 2007 I witnessed two council officials remarking areas of highway in Prince Street (Disabled Bays now marked to TSRGD Diagram 1032 from the unlawful 1028.4); Central Area Development (now double yellow lines over white cross hatch where previously no double yellows) and Cumberland Street (Loading 'Bay' remarked to Loading 'Only').

Far from being 'ongoing maintenance' these corrections to unlawful signs were the creation of NEW signs and were brought to Sunderland City Council's attention as a direct result of my evidence submission provided to the NPAS tribunal on 12th September 2007 before adjudicator Andrew Keenan.

To keep correcting or altering evidence placed before your officers and NPAS whilst defending the DPE regime as legal, robust and enforceable is perverse to say the least. However, fortunately PC 8126 Peterson witnessed the council workers amending the evidence and the signs and took their names and confirmed that he has recorded the incident. It will be my intention to call him as a witness in future proceedings and I have photographic evidence to support this which will be provided to the tribunal and to the courts.

Sea Road is an accident waiting to happen (as are many other locations in the City) and it is this level of absolute incompetence and reckless indifference to the law and public safety that will be seen by the courts, and hopefully at some point in this sorry state of affairs by the elected members, as gross negligence at best and misfeasance, indeed malfeasance in public office and perhaps fraud including attempting to obtain money by deception.

I have copied this series of e-mails in to Councillor Lawson and other council officers to avoid any claim that they were unaware of what could be seen as, should there be a serious accident or fatality at this location, absolute negligence by Sunderland City Council leaving them and individual officers and councillors wide open for a massive damages claim.

Even for the uninitiated, putting loading bays behind the zigzags of a crossing is a stupid thing to do. For highly paid and supposedly well qualified council engineers to be actioning and endorsing this in light of all the guidance available from the Department for Transport and the Government Office beggars belief and questions regarding professional competence should be investigated as a matter of urgency.

As a courtesy I have copied this e-mail to parties referred to in the text as well as other interested parties.

My contact details are below should you wish to discuss matters further and I would be grateful for an acknowledgement of this e-mail by return and explicit details of what your intended course of action will be.

May I humbly suggest that the time has come for Sunderland City Council to voluntarily request the intervention by the Department for Transport to sort out what may be best be described as an absolute shambles in the politest possible terms. It may well be that this course of action is more prudent than having the Secretary of State and the DfT put in a position where they are forced to intervene.


Yours sincerely,



Neil Herron

39 The Westlands
Sunderland
SR4 7RP

Tel. 0191 565 7143
Mob. 07776 202045

cc. Ged Fitzgerald, Chief Executive, Sunderland City Council
cc. Bob Rayner, City Solicitor
cc. Keith Beardmore, City Treasurer
cc. Phil Barrett, Director of Development and Regeneration
cc. Development and Regeneration Link Officer
cc. Councillor Bob Symonds, Leader of the Council
cc. Councillor Joseph Lawson

cc. Chris Mullin MP (Sunderland South)
cc. John Munns DfT
cc. Martin Gibson GONE
cc. Richard Bentley, RMB Consulting
cc. Chief Inspector John Lingwood, Northumbria Police

cc. Chris Stewart Chief Reporter BBC Look North
cc. Dave Morrison Producer BBC Inside Out

cc. Kevin Clark, Marissa Carruthers, Ross Robertson Sunderland Echo
cc. Paul James Newcastle Journal
cc. Newsdesk, Sun FM
cc. Peter Young, Evening Chronicle