Bath CAZ — Boundary Camera at Misleading Location

If you entered the Bath clean air zone at a point where the boundary signing did not make the zone clear to you, photographs of that entry point taken at the time support a request that the charge be cancelled for want of fair warning. This is a reason to ask for cancellation, not an automatic defence: the zone and its designated roads are fixed by the charging order and the plans deposited with it, not by where the signs are, so poor signing does not by itself make the charge unenforceable. Everything therefore turns on what your own photographs show at the point you actually entered.

Legal basis

Bath CAZ Order; TSRGD 2016; R (Herron and Parking Appeals Ltd) v The Parking Adjudicator [2011] EWCA Civ 905 at 35 to 36 (enforceability requires that adequate notice of the restriction was given to the road user), approved in A & E Baines v North Yorkshire Council [2026] EWCA Civ 257 at 14

How to identify this in your case

Photograph the approach you actually drove, at the point you entered the zone, showing what boundary signing was and was not visible to a driver — ideally in the same direction of travel and similar conditions. Street View of the same approach can support it but is not a substitute, because it may pre-date or post-date your journey. Note the date and time of your photographs.

Sample appeal wording

Before you send this

Deadline. A late submission can be rejected without your argument being read. Check your notice for the deadline and how it is counted.
Paying may end it. Paying can count as accepting the notice and can close a challenge already under way. Part-paying or acknowledging an old debt can also revive a time limit that had expired.
The amount can change. Check what happens to the sum if you challenge — it may be held, re-offered lower, or keep rising, and fees or enforcement can continue meanwhile.
Use the official route. Use the method, recipient and form your notice specifies, with any reference, evidence and signature it asks for. Sent elsewhere, it may not count.
Only say what is true. Do not copy any statement of fact unless it is true for you, and check the legal point still applies. Delete what does not fit. It may be treated as your statement.
Careful what you volunteer. Avoid unnecessary admissions — naming the driver or accepting responsibility can remove arguments. But answer anything you are legally required to answer, and do include the evidence your ground needs.
Keep the record. Keep what you sent, the attachments, any receipt, and the reply. Note the next deadline.

Sample wording to adapt and send yourself — it may not fit your notice or the stage you are at. Replace the bracketed prompts with your own details; leave any case citation as it is.

To: Bath & NES CAZ Team Re: CAZ PCN [PCN_NUMBER] I entered via [LOCATION]. Photographic evidence (dated [DATE]) shows boundary signage is [missing / obscured / non-prescribed]. The enforceability of a traffic restriction depends on adequate notice of it having been given to the road user: R (Herron and Parking Appeals Ltd) v The Parking Adjudicator [2011] EWCA Civ 905 at paragraphs 35 to 36, approved in A & E Baines v North Yorkshire Council [2026] EWCA Civ 257 at paragraph 14. The boundary signage did not convey the charging restriction adequately to a driver approaching this point, and I therefore had no fair warning that I was entering a charging zone. I do not suggest that this by itself makes the charge unenforceable — I understand the zone is defined by the charging order and the plans deposited with it. I ask you to exercise your discretion and cancel the charge on the basis that, having had no adequate warning at the point I entered, it would be unreasonable to require me to pay it. Yours faithfully, [Driver Name]

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Bath CAZ — Boundary Camera at Misleading Location

Legal basis

How to identify this in your case

Sample appeal wording

Beat It writes this argument automatically

Sources

Related appeal grounds

Next steps