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Paying your “Road tax” just entitles you to not be prosecuted for not paying it. The money goes into the general taxation pot and could be spent on anything the government funds. Amazing how millions of motorists seem to get around just fine using the signs provided. If you don’t like the currently available signs, let the government know. Let us know how you get on….

What “new” signage? Bus lane / gate signs have been around for decades. As others point out, it’s your responsibility as a driver to keep up to date with the rules of the road and any changes to signs / markings. They are in the Highway Code, which you can access for free online. If you can’t read the signs and drive safely, maybe you should hand your license in ( if you have one). As previously mentioned, I don’t think anyone would see £35 as a “substantial” fine. The amounts ( set by government ) haven’t changed for many years and aren’t as much of a deterrent as they used to be. In London, they are much higher.

If you want to get personal, I might equally ask why you are prone to gross exaggeration? ( and while we’re at it, why you deliberately miss spell). My politics are none of your business, but I’ll tell you this much, I have never voted Tory ( yes that’s how you spell it) and never will. A £35 fine is “vilification”? Give us a break. It’s just a mild reminder to do it right in future.

Has anyone actually complained to the council about the state of the car park?

So do you think penalties are only justified if someone is harmed? You don’t just get fined for taking a wrong turning. There are lots of large signs to direct you and as far as bus gates are concerned, there’s always a signed escape route for motorists to follow, just before the restriction. The fines cannot in any way be considered “huge”. £35 for a bus lane fine if paid promptly is probably about the cost of half a tank of gas for most drivers.

I don’t think it’s particularly intricate. Take care, observe the restrictions and all is fine. Our understanding of the impacts of our choices improves over time. Unfettered growth in car use might have seemed a good thing 40 or 50 years back, but now we know more about the impacts on people, so we try to do things a bit differently and encourage use of public transport and active travel. We realise that having huge roads going through our town and city centres isn’t such a good idea. Changes in the fortunes of town and city centres is more to do with how we now live our lives, like online shopping, home working, out of town shopping centres etc. Every town and city is experiencing problems on the high street. Even Birmingham, probably the most car oriented city in the UK is seeing the same downturns, John Lewis closing their new flagship store for example. Birmingham are removing road infrastructure, installing better public transport and making their city centre more people friendly. So are most places.

Nope. Maybe time to hand in your license if you can’t cope…..

So would you care to provide some links to this “plethora” of information which confirms that lack of road infrastructure is limiting Sheffield’s growth? I’m not your “buddie” either.

Utter rubbish. All of the signing and road markings associated with an enforceable bus gate has to comply with government requirements. If it didn’t, the independent adjudicators, who rule on appeals against fines, would uphold all appeals and require the council to install a legally compliant setup.

It does. Some would contend that the outer ring road is only partial, as it isn’t a dual carriageway road all the way round. Not a bad summary of the topographical issue.

So you should be. I’d think this article provides a reasonably balanced view of what actually happened. Looks to me it was more down to the local council’s approach to public engagement, which upset the locals. Looked like there was only one place where traffic increased on a peripheral road and a few increases elsewhere. The stuff about impacts on emergency services is a red herring. It appears the former head of London ambulance service commented that the rapid introduction of LTN’s caught out some paramedics as they didn’t show on Sat No evidence of any negative impacts on outcomes.

That might be your view, but saying “100%”, doesn’t make it true. I’ve never seen any factual evidence to support that view. I can’t ever recall hearing anyone else put forward that view either.

The answer is very simple. You should be more observant. The find is a reminder to you to do that. If you thought the signing was deficient, you should have appealed. The super, soaraway Star are sensationalist as usual. The amount which will be received is far less than that. Most people don’t pay the full amount and many fines are cancelled or appealed. Exactly how do you think you are going to “make them illegal”? Everything they are doing is lawful.

If you want anyone to take what you’re saying seriously you need evidence, not anecdotes. You claimed that “it” ( traffic delays ) is harming Sheffield’s growth. Where’s your evidence.

Nope, it isn’t. The MCA owns Supertram. They are not a council.

And your evidence for this assertion is what?

Have a look at this article. There’s a link in it to some research. Where are these “ well documented cases” then?

The studies that have been done around low traffic neighbourhoods show that there aren’t any additional delays to traffic on the streets on their periphery. So, there isn’t an issue.

The example you are giving, based on a blades home game, might happen around once a fortnight in the football season, for about an hour. I’d suspect that the “big” visitor centre isn’t going to attract huge numbers. The national football museum in Manchester has about 500 visitors on average per day of opening (based on 2022/23 figures). This isn’t going to be as big an attraction. It will be interesting to see what traffic impacts the applicants are forecasting and what mitigations they feel are needed. I can’t see the application on the planning portal yet.

Yes, it depends on the day/time of the match, what other commitments they have and how many enforcement staff are available.

Indeed. The council can easily run a report off from their back office system.

Correct. The advice is always to pay the fine or challenge it through the regulated process. It is very unsafe to ignore legally enforceable penalties. I’ve seen examples of cases where people have become rather obsessed with parking penalties and have taken them to the high court and lost. That entails huge costs. One guy I saw on a TV documentary was facing losing his house.

No, they don’t turn a blind eye. I’ve seen plenty of vehicles with penalty charge notices on them when I’ve been coming out of football matches and I’ve dealt with complaints about the issue of penalties at matches while I was at SCC. You need to perhaps consider that they only have a limited amount of time to patrol and issue tickets, while the fans are in the ground. For obvious safety reasons they need to be well away from the area when fans are coming out, which can be well before the end of the game.

I believe so. Unpaid fines are reported to the traffic enforcement centre ( county court at Northampton ) who appoint bailiffs to pursue the fines ( plus the processing charges). It’s a National setup that all councils use as far as I’m aware. Some of the fines do prove to be uncollectable. In my previous role at SCC I used to have to field complaints from people who literally had bailiffs at the door to seize their possessions for unpaid fines. So I can confirm that they do always pursue unpaid fines within the means available to them. A handful of £30 fines can very quickly add up to £ thousands once this court and bailiff fees are added. The bailiffs invariably look to seize a persons car first. It can be a pretty traumatic experience.

The key word there is “temporary” Of course you can build cheaper if the structure is only expected to fulfil a short term purpose. The figures being quoted don’t appear untypical for new stations. It’s got an over bridge bridge and lifts. In West Yorkshire they are looking to build a new station on the Calder Valley line at Elland, which might get 2 trains an hour stopping there. Cost of the station is £20 million and the access package for it is another £10 million. Building anything on the railway is frighteningly expensive. The MCA have done a business case for it. They do it for all significant schemes. You could send in an foi request and see a copy if you were really interested.