Failing to comply with a prohibition on certain types of vehicleThe official national descriptor for code 52, as published in the Department for Transport statutory guidance list.
The letter after the number on your ticket
Codes are often written with a suffix: 52j rather than just 52. The letter narrows the allegation, and it tells you what the council actually says went wrong. These are the suffixes code 52 can carry:
| j | camera enforcement |
The other letters this code can carry identify the class of vehicle the prohibition applies to. Read the class on your notice first, because if your vehicle is not in it the allegation fails outright.
What the council has to be able to show
An appeal is not an apology, it is a challenge to the council’s case. For code 52 that case rests on:
- A traffic order prohibiting that class of vehicle on that road.
- Prescribed signs, with advance warning where the restriction is a weight limit.
- That your vehicle falls within the prohibited class.
Where code 52 tickets go wrong
Weight limits are usually maximum gross weight, not laden weight, and drivers and councils both get this wrong. Check the plate on the vehicle against the wording of the order.
Most weight and vehicle-type restrictions carry an "except for access" or "except for loading" exemption. If you were delivering or collecting on that road, say what and where.
A weight limit needs signs far enough back that a large vehicle can still take another route. If the first sign is at the restriction, a lorry has nowhere to go.
Say so with the date, and photograph the diversion signage if it is still up.
What to gather before you write
- The vehicle’s plated gross weight or height.
- A delivery note or job sheet if you were there for access.
- Photographs of the advance signing, or of the gap where it should be.
Code 52 questions, answered
The weight limit sign said 7.5 tonnes and my van is nowhere near that loaded. Why the ticket?
Because weight limits on these signs are almost always maximum gross weight, meaning the plated weight of the vehicle, not what it happens to be carrying that day. An empty vehicle plated above the limit is still caught. Check the plate on the vehicle first, then check whether the order carries an access or loading exemption, which most of them do.
What does contravention code 52 mean?
Failing to comply with a prohibition on certain types of vehicle. In plain terms: Weight limits, height limits, and bans on goods vehicles through residential streets. Most of these notices go to drivers who were routed there by a sat nav that does not know the vehicle it is guiding.
How much is a code 52 penalty?
Code 52 is a moving traffic or bus lane contravention, so it is not banded higher and lower the way parking codes are. In London the charge is £160 across the board. Outside London it is set at the higher level, commonly around £70. Half is normally taken off for early payment, and because these notices are usually issued from a camera rather than by an officer at the roadside, that discount period is often 21 days rather than 14. Your notice states the actual figures and the actual deadline, and it is the notice that governs.
Your notice is definitive. This page explains the national code. Councils use extra codes and local suffixes, and the wording printed on your own notice always takes precedence. Check the deadline on the notice before you do anything else, because the discount usually runs out after 14 days.
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