Loophole over road signs lets illegal driving go unpunished

Motoring offences are going unpunished across much of London because of an extraordinary loophole.

Drivers are able to carry out illegal U-turns, go the wrong way down one-way streets, ignore "no right or left-turn" signs and drive into pedestrian precincts with impunity in a third of all boroughs.

Police have been ordered to stop handing out fixed penalty notices for the offences and instead leave the task to councils. But 12 local authorities have failed to put their own enforcement arrangements in place. The boroughs affected are Barnet, Bexley, Brent, Bromley, Greenwich, Havering, Kensington & Chelsea, Kingston, Lewisham, Merton, Richmond and Sutton.

A memo issued by the Met Police yesterday tells officers simply to speak to rule-breaking drivers to warn them about their behaviour.

"The whole of the Metropolitan Police Area has been designated a civil enforcement area and to date enforcement powers have been adopted by about two thirds of London local authorities," it says. "With immediate effect, Metropolitan Police Service officers must no longer enforce the relevant individual offences, but where the driving behaviour is of a blatant and careless nature drivers should be reported for driving without due care and attention/without reasonable consideration.

"Where officers witness offences in circumstances that amount to minor errors of judgment, drivers may continue to be stopped and words of advice given, however no formal warning may be given or reporting action taken. Officers must not tell drivers that no proceedings will be brought as a local authority civil enforcement notice could still be issued, for example where the authority has captured the offence on camera."

The leader of the Green Party on the London Assembly, Jenny Jones, today said she would be taking the matter up with new Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson. She warned: "It's going to be chaos out there and desperately dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians if motorists think they can do anything they like. It sends out completely the wrong message. I'd call upon the boroughs to take action immediately.

"However, I do believe road policing is a job for the police. They catch a lot of criminals through stopping cars and linking registration plates and they know they do."

Council officers issued 611,130 fixed penalties to motorists for moving traffic offences in 2007-08 — a 192,618 increase on the previous year.

But Barnet, Bexley, Havering and Kensington & Chelsea councils have no plans to introduce the "civil enforcement officers" needed to issue the penalties. Bromley said it is likely to start handing out fixed penalty notices in the coming year and Brent is looking at the issue.

The offences were decriminalised in 2003 but police continued to hand out penalty notices. Last year London Councils, which represents the 32 boroughs, asked Scotland Yard why it had not handed responsibility over to councils. After seeking legal advice the Met agreed they should do so.

A spokesman for London Councils said: "I think more councils will start to look at passing provisions now."

No one from the Met Police was available to comment.