Using a vehicle on a restricted street during prescribed hours in breach of permit conditionsThe official national descriptor for code 59, as published in the Department for Transport statutory guidance list.
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 59 that case rests on:
- The terms of the permit actually held.
- That the movement fell outside those terms.
- That the street and time are within the scheme.
Where code 59 tickets go wrong
Read the permit against the alleged route. These are refused more often on a misreading than on a real breach.
Road closures, accidents and works push lorries off approved routes. Produce the closure notice or the traffic report for that night.
Ask them to quote the condition they rely on and match it to the permit you hold.
Emergencies and breakdowns justify deviation. Keep the recovery paperwork.
What to gather before you write
- The permit itself with all its conditions.
- Routing or telematics data for the movement.
- Evidence of any diversion, closure or incident.
Code 59 questions, answered
The road was closed so we went another way. Does that excuse the deviation?
It is the strongest reason there is for this code, but it has to be evidenced rather than asserted. Get the closure notice, the contractor’s details or the traffic report for that night, and pair it with your routing or telematics data showing where the vehicle actually went and when. A diversion you can document is a very different case from one you simply describe.
What does contravention code 59 mean?
Using a vehicle on a restricted street during prescribed hours in breach of permit conditions. In plain terms: The companion to code 58. Here a permit exists, but the vehicle used a route, a time or a movement the permit does not cover. Most of these come down to a driver deviating from the approved route.
How much is a code 59 penalty?
Code 59 comes from a standalone permit scheme rather than the ordinary parking regime, so it is not banded higher and lower and the usual parking figures do not apply to it. Schemes of this kind set their own penalty, and it is substantially larger than a parking ticket, with its own discount for prompt payment and its own increase if it is left unpaid. The amount and both deadlines are printed on your notice. Read them before anything else, because the sums involved make a missed discount expensive.
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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