Bulk Ward councillor Sam Riches, has represented Lancaster City Council for the past two years on the Joint Committee of PATROL [Parking and Traffic Regulation Outside London]. This committee brings together virtually all the local authorities in England and Wales. It provides a forum for overseeing the work of the independent Traffic Penalty Tribunal.
Drivers can appeal to the tribunal if they are given a Penalty Charge Notice [PCN] in on-street parking provision or in a car park under local authority control (privately-controlled car parks have their own appeals process), or if they receive a PCN for a moving traffic violation (such as driving a car in a bus lane). PATROL’s work is funded by a small levy on each PCN that is issued, with the remainder of the charge retained by the local authority.
Sam has now been elected as Vice Chair of the Joint Committee of PATROL, and as far as we know she is the first Green councillor to hold this position.
Sam will now be involved in helping to set the future priorities of PATROL – in addition to its support of the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, the organisation undertakes research and advocacy work on important topics relating to road transport. This includes issues such as pavement parking, Clean Air Zones and toll roads, tunnels and bridges. PATROL also offers funding to local authorities to develop projects via a competitive process, the Driving Improvement awards.
Cornwall Council won the 2025 contest and will focus on tackling Blue Badge abuse and trying to ensure that disabled parking bays are kept available for the people who are entitled to use them. The materials they create will subsequently be shared with local authorities all over the UK.
Sam is delighted to take up this new responsibility, and to ensure that the challenges faced by smaller local authorities in the north of England are represented alongside the concerns of the big cities. She is particularly keen to see PATROL undertaking renewed work around best practice for the provision of Electric Vehicle charging bays, in particular to discover what is working well around England and Wales to ensure that charging units are not blocked off by other kinds of vehicles, are fully accessible for disabled drivers, and are located in safe and well-lit areas.
If you are interested in finding out more about the work of PATROL do have a look at their website https://www.patrol.gov.uk .
A related website is Traff-iCase, where the Traffic Penalty Tribunal has drawn together key legal cases relating to UK parking and traffic appeals to help drivers who may receive a PCN and want to understand their situation within the wider legal context: https://www.keycases.info/