Reading Council Faces Fresh Scrutiny Over Traffic Regulation Errors

Reading Borough Council has revealed fresh problems with its traffic regulation orders (TROs), just months after admitting it wrongly issued thousands of penalty charge notices (PCNs) over more than a decade.

In October 2024, the council apologised after an internal review confirmed that 6,136 PCNs had been incorrectly handed out between 2013 and 2024 due to flawed TROs. The Local Democracy Reporting Service has now discovered that, during the process of correcting those mistakes, further inaccuracies have come to light.

Although the new issues have not increased the number of invalid PCNs, they raise further concerns about the accuracy of restrictions across the borough.

TROs set out the legal basis for road and parking rules such as double yellow lines, cycle lanes, bus lane access and residents’ bays, enabling councils to enforce fines against drivers who break them.

Among the latest errors is the southbound London Street bus lane, which was incorrectly recorded as being open to hackney carriages and cyclists. Other issues included unclear “AM/PM” time restrictions on town centre parking bays, and double yellow lines on Durham Close in Whitley that were not legally backed by a TRO.

The council has said it is working to correct the remaining errors to ensure traffic restrictions are legally sound and enforceable in future.